FAI remain on course to achieve gender balance on board

Not a topic is spared when the FAI leadership of Gerry McAnaney, Jonathan Hill and outgoing chairperson Roy Barrett sit before the media. Not Fifa’s polarising president Gianni Infantino, not Vera Pauw’s post-World Cup contract and certainly not the message this trio sought to relay.

The FAI wants everyone to know that Castore will appear on Irish gear for the foreseeable future, following a “transformational” kit deal.

They also made it clear that under-21 men’s manager Jim Crawford has a new two-year contract, along with assistant manager Alan Reynolds and Stoke City’s first-team coach John O’Shea.

Hill refused to be rushed on Pauw’s future, but Stephen Kenny’s senior coach to replace John Eustace – who replaced Anthony Barry who replaced Damien Duff – should be announced before France come to Dublin on March 27th.

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Nor will the chief executive be telling anyone, until April, if Croke Park will be included in the joint UK-Ireland bid to host Euro 2028.

The FAI do want to talk about a rebranded “identity and logo” being rolled out alongside a facilities audit that might compel the current Irish Government to share the betting levy currently funnelled into the horse and greyhound racing industries.

Unlike the German and Danish football federations both refusing to endorse Infantino’s re-election at Fifa Congress in Rwanda on March 16th, the association is staying neutral despite the controversial administrator being on course to hold power until 2031.

The FAI played down year four without a primary sponsor because Fifa no longer allows shirt branding. And anyway, they want to accentuate an incoming commercial deal.

“We won’t tell you the numbers when we announce it but it’s transformational,” said Hill. “[Castore’s] product and kit will help us in terms of conversations with prospective men’s senior team title sponsor.”

Qualification for Germany 2024 will secure that sponsor. The treacherous Group B, which includes the Netherlands, France, Greece and Gibraltar, feels less daunting now that 18-year-old Evan Ferguson is scoring at will for Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League.

The FAI do not know the venues for crucial away matches against Greece in June and France in September, although the latter is set for a return to Lyon’s Parc Olympique, where the French knocked Martin O’Neill’s side out of Euro 2016.

Didier Deschamps’s team tend to play at Stade de France in Saint-Denis, Marseilles or Lille, but the Rugby World Cup has ruled out these venues. Parc des Princes in Paris and Lyon are the available alternatives.

Interestingly, McAnaney and Hill answered every question following Saturday’s third attempt at finishing the 2022 annual general meeting. Barrett, the former managing director of Goodbody Stockbroker, will remain in-situ until the 2023 agm this summer, or longer now the FAI have reached an inevitable crossroads.

When Barrett and fellow independent director Gary Twohig announced last month that four years is sufficient time to serve on a board, it put the association ahead of the GAA and the IRFU when it comes to addressing the gender balance issue.

However, the departure of these respected businessmen, coupled with the surprise failure of school boys and girls (SFAI) nominee Tom Browne to be re-elected, strips the board of directors who each possess a particular set of skills.

“I’m really disappointed for Tom,” said Hill. “He represents the SFAI better than anybody else. He’s a decent, honest man but that is the democratic process.”

The vote, 44 for Browne’s re-election and 56 against, was surely split by former FAI board member John Earley making a speech before conclave.

“This is not an issue with Tom Browne but with the process,” said Earley. “It is like Lanigan’s ball, one steps out, the other steps in. The women and school girls of this country deserve a vote as much as anyone else.”

Earley implied that female representation within the SFAI is not being correctly utilised, but the failure of Browne to secure a second term opens the possibility of six women and six men on the FAI board come 2024.

The election of Niamh O’Mahony brings female representation to three, two directors shy of the 40 per cent needed by year’s end under terms agreed with the Government when a €19 million financial bailout was secured in 2020.

O’Mahony swept through the vote, receiving 85 for and eight against, while Department of Health general secretary Robert Watt (86-8) and Packie Bonner (92-4) were also returned as independent directors.

“It is great to see Niamh on our board, we know she represents the supporters,” said McAnaney, the FAI president. “She’s football through and through, having been a director of Cork City.”

The SFAI could renominate Browne but comments from the general assembly floor indicate a desire for a female voice to rise from the underage ranks. This would conceivably allow the FAI to replace Barrett with a male chairman.

The agm also brought Kerry FC into the League of Ireland fold with an near unanimous 93-4 vote.