John Delaney may be long gone but the FAI's legacy of poor decision making is still there
At one stage, when I was managing a club in the League of Ireland, I wrote a column for this newspaper where I called the FAI a ‘joke’. The FAI issued me with a fine. The Star paid it.
People would often stop me in the street. “Saw your column Roddy … I didn’t agree with it.” And I never had a problem with that. I’d stand there and discuss the issue, just as I did when people said they loved what I had to say.He is a family man, a good man, a nice man. But I was paid to express a point of view. The Irish management job is one of the most important posts in Irish life. Fans invest time, money and emotion into following that team.
And there were times I felt ostracised. Once at a funeral of a football person, I got chatting to an employee of the FAI. He whispered in my ear that he didn’t want Delaney, who was in the congregation, to see him chatting with me. Yet I wouldn’t be quiet. Tomorrow Ireland play Portugal in Aveiro. It is our fourth game, and approaching our eighth month, without a manager. That’s a farce. That’s an insult to the fans who pay their money to travel abroad to watch Ireland play.
League Of Ireland Stephen Kenny John Delaney Republic Of Ireland National Football Team John O'shea
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