2024 has been a complete disaster for the FAI, and we’re only FOUR months in!
On Monday, we learned that Johnathan Hill, the much-maligned CEO, would be leaving his post on
the 30th of April, with an interim (that word again) boss in situ for the time being. Mayo’s David
Courell.
On Hill, I don’t like to see anyone lose their job. Yet, I cannot feel sympathy for the man. His job was
to steer the FAI quietly and diligently for the next few years, keeping the association away from the
front pages. He even failed with that.
In my opinion, Hill didn’t care about Irish football. It was simply a gig with his eye on the top job in
England. The fact that he was allowed to earn his eye-watering salary as an absentee landlord in
London was outrageous.
If he was doing the business, you could understand the FAI giving Hill a bit more leeway. Yet, we had
the Men’s Senior Team without a sponsor for FOUR years and probably blew our only chance of
getting a huge chunk of cash from the Government for an entire generation after a shambolic
appearance at the PAC last February.
This guy was the Commercial Director of the FA for FOUR years!
Marc Canham, the Director of Football, had promised a manager by early April but has failed to
deliver on yet another deadline.
He says he understands the frustration of the fans. He also states that given “hindsight” he perhaps
shouldn’t have given deadlines that he couldn’t deliver on. Why did he feel compelled to do so in the
first place?
Also, the fact that Canham has released a statement on a Friday to an in-house channel with little
scrutiny will not sit well with supporters or media. Irish fans can be fickle, but they’re not stupid.
They know when someone is biding for time.
Why is Marc Canham stating that he would like John O’Shea to stay as interim manager when he
hasn’t even agreed to it yet? I wouldn’t blame O’Shea if he told him to poke it.
Canham indicated that a new manager wouldn’t be in place until the Nations League opener in
September and the small matter of England at home. Could you imagine any prospective managers
looking at that for a debut fixture?
Here you go. One of the best teams in the world, damn all preparation, off you go, son. Yeah, they will
be queuing out the door.
I genuinely thought the FAI were doing a fantastic job of keeping things under wraps. It turns out the
FAI had no one in place and probably won’t for another four months- we hope.
I didn’t even mind that we had an interim manager in place for March – as long as Canham and Co.
got the right man for the job.
Christ, do I feel stupid now?
Our fans and the players deserve so much better from the FAI. There are some brilliant people inside
of Abbottstown that work their arses off doing brilliant work. It’s not fair that they will be tarnished
with this nonsense.
Where we go from here is anyone’s guess.
David