FAI unmoved by Hughton talk

News: FAI chief executive Fran Rooney has dismissed as "complete speculation," reports yesterday that Chris Hughton may have to resign his position as assistant manager of the Republic of Ireland senior team in the new year because of increased responsibilities at White Hart Lane.

David Pleat said on Sunday he anticipated a reorganisation of the management structure at Tottenham under which he would return to being the "director of football" while Hughton would be given the enhanced role of head coach.

Hughton played down the significance of the comments and maintained he intended to carry on in his dual role. Rooney added that, after speaking with Hughton and Brian Kerr, he feels there is little basis to believe the former international defender will be forced to choose between his two employers.

"As we understand it, Spurs have made no decision about what they want to do yet at all," said Rooney. "David Pleat made these remarks but there seems to be no more to it than that at the moment and Chris seems very happy to continue on filling the roles that he does now."

Rooney, meanwhile, confirmed participation in a "Celtic" nations tournament involving Scotland and Wales at the end of the season is now amongst the options being considered by the FAI with regard to filling the void created by the senior team's failure to qualify for next summer's European Championship finals.

"We have invitations from the United States and Japan but this is something else for us to consider, although no decisions will be made until after next week's World Cup draw when we will have a better idea of who it is that we want and don't want to play."

The issue of securing funding for a stadium remains the association's top priority, Rooney said. "I met with the Taoiseach on Friday and asked him for an answer as soon as possible on the stadium.

"It's a matter of concern to us that they have taken this long to make a decision and the sooner the matter can be resolved the better because it has major implications for the association in relation to the future location of our headquarters and our proposed national coaching centre."

He admitted, meanwhile, that hopes of securing a three-fold rise in government funding for the FAI have been scuppered.

"We would still hope to secure those sort of improvements in the long term," he said, "but with the Book of Estimates indicating that there will only be a nine per cent rise in funding for sport next year the priority now has to be to simply get as much of that extra money as we can."