The decision by the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) to abandon its plans to build a £130 million stadium on the outskirts of Dublin brings an end to two years of wrangling and bitterness which has divided soccer at the highest levels in the Republic. In deciding to become an anchor tenant at the Government-funded Stadium Ireland, the FAI has belatedly shown the common sense that has been absent from much of the association's deliberations on the stadium issue over the last 12 months.
When the FAI unveiled its plans for the Citywest project in 1999, few believed that the scale of the plan could be realised for the projected cost of £65 million. However, even the plan's harshest critics saluted the ambition of the FAI in trying to develop its own stadium. With increasing numbers playing soccer at all levels in the Republic, and interest in the international side as strong as ever, it was not unreasonable to believe that the time was ripe for the FAI to move its games from an outdated Lansdowne Road to a state-of-the-art facility.
But within 12 months, the die was cast for the FAI and its ambitious stadium plans. Not alone were detailed questions being asked about the projected costs but the Government announced plans for Stadium Ireland - an 80,000 capacity arena on a 500acre site fewer than five miles from the Citywest stadium. While a city like Dublin, accustomed to third-world sports facilities, needs a modern national stadium, no plausible argument could be made for three world-class facilities - when Croke Park is included.
At that stage, it would have been more prudent for the FAI to join with the Irish Rugby Football Union in accepting Government offers to become an anchor tenant in Stadium Ireland. Although the football association can argue that it would not have extracted £45 million from the Government for abandoning Eircom Park, no price can be put on the damage done to the image of soccer in the subsequent arguments between leading FAI administrators.
In the past 12 months, the public has witnessed an unseemly squabble between the FAI's chief executive, Bernard O'Byrne, and various members of the association's board of management. O'Byrne's resolute stance that the stadium costs and projected income would come in on target, proved to be wishful thinking and must call into question his own future as chief executive. Over £3 million of FAI funds has been wasted.
For the Government's part, yesterday's decision by the FAI will be seen as a boost for the Stadium Ireland concept, making it far more likely that the plans for Abbotstown will come to fruition. The idea that international rugby alone could sustain Stadium Ireland was folly in the extreme. With a price tag of over £350 million, and costs that could bring the project to almost £1 billion, doubts about the wisdom and viability of the stadium were justified.
That scepticism will be somewhat allayed by the FAI signing up to play international games at Stadium Ireland although the Government still faces a longterm battle to convince the public that it needs a sporting showcase on the scale of the stadium project. With the sick and the elderly too often relegated to trolleys in hospital corridors and with obscenely-long waiting lists for life-or-death treatment, it has to be asked if the national priorities have gone astray.