Euro 2008 qualifying:FAI chief executive John Delaney yesterday moved to dampen the renewed speculation regarding Steve Staunton's future by expressing support for the Ireland manager and remarked, "It's important that he's given time."
Interviewed in Belfast by RTÉ radio, where he was visiting in connection with the proposed redevelopment of the Brandywell stadium in Derry, Delaney was asked if he was still supportive of the Louthman after Wednesday's defeat by the Czech Republic in Prague.
"Of course I am," he replied, "of course."
Delaney went on to outline what he saw as the progress made under Staunton and criticised the media for its reaction to individual results.
"We were fourth seeds going into this tournament and in simple terms if you're a fourth seed then you should finish fourth but I'm certain that we will finish higher than that. Then, if you think of 32 players and 15 new competitive caps from a position of transition, then that's progress.
"But this is becoming a bit attritional. Every game we play is followed by these questions about the manager . . . Will he stay? Will he go? I think he should be allowed to get on with implementing the strategy of developing the game and the international team."
He went on to cite the fact supporters at the Sparta stadium had stayed behind for 20 minutes after the final whistle to voice their support for Staunton in song.
Within minutes, however, a text was read out on air in which a fan who had been in Prague pointed out that the Irish had been kept in the ground by police and had, in fact, been singing about Stephen Hunt.
Earlier yesterday, the FAI issued what amounted to an extended vote of confidence in Staunton with its president, David Blood, quoted as backing the manager after Wednesday's defeat and Delaney, comparing the Irish team's current difficulties to the "wilderness years of French football", a spell, he observed, that ended with the World Cup and European Championship wins of 1998 and 2000 respectively.
In a statement, Delaney suggested that the organisation's Emerging Talent Programme would, in time, ensure that more high-quality players are available to the Ireland manager. Seizing upon a rather extreme example of what might be achieved when adequate work and resources are put into the nurturing of talent, he cited the French experience.
"Despite their result last night," he says in the statement, "people now look on France as a footballing power and nobody refers to the wilderness years of French football when, after winning the European Championships in 1984 and finishing fourth in the 1982 World Cup and third in the 1986 World Cup, they failed to qualify for Euro 88, Italia 90, and US 94. They did qualify for Euro 92 but failed to win a game in the group stages.
"However," he continued, "during that period they ploughed significant resources into the technical side of their game and have qualified for every tournament over the past 10 years, winning the World Cup in 98 and Euro 2000 as well as finishing runners-up in the 2006 World Cup and reaching the semi-finals of Euro 96.
"The French Federation invested resources in the development of elite players and FAI is mirroring that strategy even though we are working off a much smaller population base and, therefore, reservoir of talent."
