It is sometimes hard to separate a public role from the private person who is charged with fulfilling it. There was disappointment expressed in some quarters last night that more detail was not forthcoming about the FAI Board’s review of the Republic of Ireland’s failure to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
The Board met from late afternoon through the evening and a short statement was issued last night at 22:12.
It read: “The Football Association of Ireland can confirm that Board members undertook positive and detailed discussions around a review of the FIFA World Cup 2022 qualification tournament in its entirety at its scheduled monthly meeting in Dublin this evening.”
“CEO Jonathan Hill will now provide feedback to the Republic of Ireland Men’s Senior Team management accordingly and will move the process forward. As with all employee matters, this process will remain confidential.”
“The FAI will be making no further comment on this matter until it is appropriate.”
Public interest
That is as it should be. The inevitable public interest is less on the technical reasons of the defeats that led to our World cup exit, or indeed on the structural, long term improvements that can boost us in the longer term. Instead, the interest, fuelled by the media and the barstool conversations in a circular path of chatter lay instead on Stephen Kenny, Yes or No?
If the board has been able to ‘read the room’ as the saying goes, and they are a collection of smartly tuned politically astute folk, then Stephen Kenny should welcome the call from Jonathan Hill to come and have a chat.
Anyone who works for a living, in an organisation, has performance reviews and that is what this is. Most of us don’t have it discussed on the airways and the social media threads, however, and neither would we like it if it were.
The FAI has said it will make further comment when it is appropriate. That will be after the private conversation with Kenny, and at such point as the length of any new contract is discussed.
He is currently under contract until July 2022, at the end of the next Nations League series of matches. Then there is a two-year window to the end of the Euro 2024 cycle, the finals of which will be held in Germany, and the draw for which will be held next October.
Cycle
That is a natural, short, cycle in the life of a football manager and if there were to be a change at the top it should really happen now, or be put away in a box for another two and half years.
That is the almost certain outcome that the FAI will negotiate with Kenny’s agent Eamon McLoughlin. At that point, an announcement will be made and we will all move on.
The critics argued that his lack of top-flight pedigree made him unsuitable for the job in the first place. That was fuelled by the width of a post in Slovakia, the goal drought and the defeat to Luxembourg. It has to hit the floor before it bounces and bounce it did.
A near victory in Portugal won over the fans if not the result based critics. But there was more than a result at play here. The players he was bringing through like Gavin Bazuno and Andrew Omabamadele were articulate, skilful, open and likeable.
A ‘Victory at any cost’ view would score the campaign as a Fail and demand a return to a high paid, ideally mainland European style coach.
For others though the line from Brian Clough in the opening sequence to the Second Captains podcast is perhaps more attuned to the fans. “I want to win the league, but I want to win it better.”
Anyway, the review has now been completed, the conversations will be held, and we will know the outcome of them before the draw for the Nations League which will take place in a little over two weeks time.
Until then there are other things to talk about.
Sport for Business Perspective
The closing games of the campaign were fun to watch and the positive mood among the fans is palpable. Football is a tough, results-driven business as witnessed every day in the English Premier League. But this team has done enough to win the affection of a fan base perhaps jaded by less attractive football over recent campaigns and that alone deserves a greater degree of certainty over what might happen next on their journey.
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