Strong FAI line-up keeps Press in check

ON SOCCER/Emmet Malone: News from Merrion Square yesterday of the resolution of the dispute over pensions which had come close to prompting the first strike in the history of the association will have come as a relief to an organisation ever more conscious about its public image.

In a statement yesterday afternoon, chief executive Fran Rooney welcomed the agreement and insisted the deal was "in line with an agreement which the association had been close to finalising during discussions prior to last week". SIPTU, on the other hand, maintained that the FAI had effectively backed-down and implemented a deal they had previously tried to alter substantially.

A year ago it would have been possible to talk to some of the employees affected at the association and get their take on it. Not anymore.

Some time ago Rooney made it known that any unauthorised contact by members of staff with the media would result in the offender being immediately dismissed. It is claimed some managers were subsequently told that itemised phone records would be kept to ensure that the new rules were observed.

The result is that almost every press query to the association, no matter how mundane, is now referred to the organisation's PR consultants, Conroy-O'Rourke, by people who, it is quite clear, fear the repercussions of discussing routine football matters. Instead, an outside company, whose monthly fees are unknown, even to the majority of the FAI's officers, handles the query at, one presumes, substantial cost to the association.

It's strange stuff from an organisation publicly committed to a bright new era of openness and transparency. One of the findings of last year's study was that the association's staff were demoralised, and its hard to imagine that the threat of being sacked for talking to a journalist has done much to perk them up. It also all seems a little laughable coming from an organisation which can hardly blame its consistently-high media profile of the last few years on its middle management or other paid employees.

One presumes that senior team manager Brian Kerr, whose players gather in Dublin this morning ahead of Thursday's trip to Basle, is unaffected by the new rules of media engagement, although his attitude to the press since replacing Mick McCarthy at the start of the year would be easier to fathom if his phone records too had to be turned in to head office at the end of each month.

During his days with St Patrick's Athletic, and then the Irish underage teams, Kerr had always shown himself to be quite an operator where the press was concerned. On trips away he went out of his way to make not only himself accessible to journalists but also his young players who, he maintained, could benefit from learning to deal with the media in the fairly low key atmosphere of an underage tournament.

The result was that after the difficulties which characterised the end of the McCarthy era, it was generally expected his appointment would dramatically improve the relationship with the media. Given the abandonment of any pretence that the Irish players are still really accessible to the fans they profess to feel so close to, Kerr is increasingly the only link between the team and its supporters.

Having been given the job, Kerr asked for, and was given, some space to settle into it, but tensions soon started to emerge. An early problem centred on the group of British journalists who cover the Irish team and whose work would be a major source, amongst others, for the substantial Irish population across the water. Having been close to McCarthy, they knew little of Kerr and requested a meeting which would serve as an opportunity to establish some sort of rapport. He declined, and they subsequently tried on a number of occasions to arrange something, culminating in an offer to fly into Dublin on any date that suited in order to meet him. This too was refused.

Over the months that followed the Dubliner has made it clear he objects to being questioned regarding his tactics or team selections at press conferences, and has expressed the desire to do fewer of them in the build-up to games, a process initiated almost immediately when he began to hand over responsibility for some to his assistant, Chris Hughton. And as time has gone on he has become more and more inaccessible.

After one behind-the-scenes discussion it was decided to have a look at how other associations handle their responsibilities in the area. It seemed a worthwhile idea. But, rather incredibly, the model chosen by the FAI was the English FA's handling of a media it is almost always at war with. So, after that, the Irish press corps was pretty much told it should consider itself lucky.

Matters deteriorated in the wake of the Russia game, when the tone of the questioning over his team selection annoyed Kerr and an official subsequently warned one British television journalist that he could find himself being thrown out of future press conferences.

The manager seemed in much better form last week when, surrounded by three PR officials, his PA, the team's security officer, his agent and the FAI's press officer, he announced the squad for this week's game. The presence of such a large entourage might be overkill from an organisation still regularly reminded of its foolhardiness in sending an almost unprotected McCarthy to Saipan. Or maybe the majority of them were just there to keep an eye on each other. You can't be too careful when there are journalists about.