Misguided Euros bid distracts from real issues
SQUAWKS of outrage about ministers flying around the world for St Patrick’s Day signal the real end of the pandemic. This hardy annual has been a trigger for outrage denied the permanently enraged for two years. But now, with details of ministerial travel plans released, apoplexy can return to the national debate.
The cost of a minister’s flight to Australia or America is compared to the pay of a nurse.
Fury threatens to wilt every shamrock on the island. And it’s all a confected nonsense.
The suggestion that the government of a small country on the periphery of Europe should refuse the access afforded uniquely to it, by dint of the reach of its diaspora, is risible.
And the potential economic return from dispatching ministers around the world, building relationships and making connections with investors, is easily understood as a multiple of the cost of flights and accommodation.
Like governments, organisations are entitled to ambitions and to shape their plans accordingly, and they are obliged to maximise any possible advantage that comes their way. No executive or board of directors should be admonished for dreaming big.
But they should consider their priorities – and it seems blindingly clear that hosting a little bit of the 2028 European Championships should not be concerning the leadership of the FAI.
Pitching for competitions like this one stirs stomach-tightening memories in those of us able to recall Gay Mitchell’s desire to get the Olympics to Ireland. Ireland’s bid for the 2023 Rugby World Cup was almost as ill-conceived.
And now this.
Just because it won’t cost a fortune to be a part of the joint bid with the federations in the UK is not persuasive. Nor is the predictably enthusiastic support from the political realm: no TD or minister will endanger the chance of highfiving Stephen Kenny at the announcement of the successful bid.
And even the widely held view that this bid has a good chance of success should not recommend it.
There are, instead, much more important issues for the FAI execuFAI, tives and their staff to consider.
The day after the bid announcement, a strategy document detailing plans and ambitions for the association up to 2025 was launched.
It has drawn a cool response, but there is enough detail in it to keep the organisation and its staff busy for the next four years.
Jonathan Hill, the CEO, dealt deftly with questions about whether he will relocate to Ireland from London to do the job. That he does not plan to do so has stirred some excitement.
Commuting between England and Ireland is not the Brendan Voyage, though, and once Hill discharges his duties effectively, his desire to keep his family in England should not be relevant.
Roy Barrett, the chairman of the has been understated in his public appearances since the maelstrom into which he walked two years ago started to calm, but the most robust declaration from within the FAI this week came from him.
‘We’ve tried to reform the organisation as much as we can so that it’s investable and people can trust in it and I think we’ve got to that point,’ he said.
There is a commercial impetus in promoting this image, as Barrett and Hill were questioned on the absence of a primary sponsor for the men’s team. This is a critical generator of income for the association, but a reformed FAI is also seeking the investment of public trust and support.
A good deal of positive work has been done in this connection, and not just at an executive level.
The performances of the two senior teams at the end of last year were hugely encouraging, but so was the manner in which Vera Pauw and Katie McCabe conducted themselves when they discussed the harrowing story of player abuse that emerged in the American game.
Pauw, in particular, is an impressive leadership figure, and the women’s team have now become a powerful engine in the general women in sport movement.
Kenny’s influence is not as obvious in interviews, but his team have started making good on his vision.
This being Irish soccer, complication is only ever just off-stage, and the departure of Anthony Barry could imperil the progress that has been made. But the support offered to Kenny by Hill and the board looks well-founded.
Commercially, the FAI’s deal with Sky to become the first stand-alone main sponsor of the women’s side was a success, but better again was the message it sent out.
Sponsorship arrangements do not, ordinarily, secure positive coverage of the kind the Sky deal did, but it showed a major Irish sporting organisation attuned to the needs of its players, but also to the significant changes underway in women’s sport, and how it is supported in this country.
That awareness is not much in evidence among some of its peers in Irish sport. But winning back the public is a project that cannot rest. Senior FAI figures can declare that they are no longer consumed by the damage done in the past, that this is a new outfit, that from now on, the sickening chaos of the old regime will have no impact on how business is done.
Actions are everything in fulfilling this ambition. It is reasonable to suppose that Hill, Barrett or others will not be seen throwing ties to fans or losing a shoe when being chaired around a Baltic seaside resort by supporters on the razz.
Their determination to engage with the League of Ireland and restore relationships with clubs that had fallen into disarray, is clear. Solving the difficulties between the clubs and the schoolboy game was another ambition stated this week.
As with aspects of the
strategy just published, the detail around some of these aims is sketchy. That this is a reformed organisation seems clear, though, and there are sound reasons for soccer supporters to be optimistic of better times ahead.
And most of the country are soccer fans. This may not be reflected in attendances at League of Ireland matches, but it is evident in the hundreds attending juvenile training and matches all over the country every weekend.
It can be seen, too, in the huge viewing figures matches involving the national teams attract.
This year promises to be thrilling on that score, between the Nations League demands made of Kenny’s team, and the big dates looming for Pauw’s side in their World Cup qualification bid.
Irish soccer has a story of improvement and determination to tell but, even more importantly, it has an enormous constituency waiting to be converted.
This is the most popular sport in the world, but one whose capacity to win hearts and minds in this country has been handicapped not by the dominance of the GAA, but by a consistent failure to harness that support.
Distractions like a bid for the Euros are a nuisance. The chance to host a Switzerland-Poland last 16 game in the Aviva Stadium in six years’ time will not determine the ongoing health of Irish soccer.
That requires more painstaking, granular detail, ensuring that dayto-day operations at all levels of the sport are attended to with precision and care. Much of this stuff is boring and it won’t attract a Minister or a clatter of TV cameras.
But this is the work that will save Irish soccer, and perhaps help it realise, at long last, some of its awesome potential.
‘DAY-TO-DAY OPERATIONS AT ALL LEVELS NEED TO BE ATTENDED TO’