John Fallon: FAI move on U14 League of Ireland comes too late

Roy Barrett is sticking to his guns on the contentious decision to delay the U14 national league season. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

“Nothing has changed in the FAI,” hollered Athlone Town’s rep Michael O’Connor as the virtual gathering of the new general assembly on Monday night threatened to veer off-script over a contentious delay to the U14 national league season.

His ire was directed at FAI chairman Roy Barrett and chief executive Jonathan Hill who, along with president Gerry McAnaney, were the three signatories to last week’s edict confirming the decision on the July start date was irreversible.

Most of the participants in the underage national leagues, from U14 to U19, were represented among the 100 members on the call but the man nicknamed Socks during his playing career was the only one of their number who didn’t get cold feet.

He was the solitary voice querying a move that has erupted those volcanic fault lines around youth development which had lain dormant for several months.

The background is the introduction by the FAI, championed by outgoing high performance director Ruud Dokter, of the U13 and U14 national leagues.

By preventing the traditional schoolboys’ clubs from joining the new venture, elite talent instead migrated to the League of Ireland outfits entrusted for the first time with the responsibility of hot-housing the finest young talent.

That had the effect of not just weakening the incumbents but, secondly, due to the differing season formats — schoolboys use the school year from September to June, whereas the national league opts for the calendar version between March in November — those clubs known as “grassroots” were seeing their teams decimated by exoduses midway through the campaign.

“Transitioning from grassroots to the national league has caused significant difficulties, in particular for this year’s U14s,” explained Barrett in response to O’Connor.

“There was an element of dysfunctionality about what happened before. It has a collateral impact on the integrity of team structures and the game at schoolboy level.

“When the board reviewed the options, we took a view that rather than perpetuate something that was wrong and damaging for many, we’d take action now.

“We did so in the knowledge that it was late in the day and would cause some dislocation. We weren’t comfortable with it but preferred to do the right thing now rather than delay doing the right thing in a year’s time. There were no dissenting voices, we stand over the decision and it won’t be reversed.”

Whatever about the rationale for treating the U14s differently to the rest of the age-groups, who will all begin games in February, O’Connor was particularly aggrieved at two other aspects of the episode.

Firstly, that a consensus among the National League Executive Committee (NLEC) — the forum that governs the League of Ireland — was ignored and whether the people who took this alternative route were qualified to do so.

The board that made the ruling on November 29, at the same meeting they delegated Jonathan Hill to open talks with Stephen Kenny on a contract extension, consists of 12 directors. They are equally split between those elected through football channels and nominated externally as independents.

Within the latter half is Barrett, who made it abundantly clear that any decision by a committee, such as the NLEC or its new incarnation, soon to be led by Dermot Ahern, is open to being overturned.

Given the chairman referenced “the best option” in his reasoning, maybe the national league clubs would be best served delving within their own parish to ascertain what changed from August when there was one and one only unified start date.

As Pat Fenlon suggested on the RTÉ podcast, perhaps this was a broader gesture by the new broom determined to untangle a mess they inherited.

For someone so steeped in the League of Ireland as a player and manager, Fenlon holds a refreshingly wider view on state-of-the-nation matters like the one causing rancour here.

He shares the concern of Niall Quinn that schoolboy clubs were pushed aside while the FAI steamrolled through a concept with unnecessary haste and without the requisite funding.

The suspicion that this latest manoeuvring is designed to preserve the age-old institution that is the U14 Kennedy Cup has merit, especially considering a team from outside of the FAI’s jurisdiction won the tournament on Sunday.

South Belfast, like the Republic teams they beat along the way, couldn’t select players affiliated to their national league set-up but the IFA is further advanced in its structure to the extent that the likes of Glentoran, Glenavon, and Crusaders operate second string development squads and these were available to represent their league.

The Cork side beaten in the final at Limerick University were unrecognisable from the team that reigned supreme at U12 and U13 interleague level. The lure of national league exposure with Cork City and Cobh Ramblers naturally proved overwhelming for the generation born in 2007.

There’s no guarantee that the FAI’s intervention will dissuade the 2008 group from following the trend, even if there’s no fixtures for the next seven months.

Already, plans are afoot among the national league clubs to organise friendly blitzes to fill the gap, though it is expected some the unsigned gems will either stay with their schoolboy club or others drift back, if they’re made welcome, and use the Kennedy Cup as a swansong.

What the top table did was act in the interest of the majority of their constituents, rather than the few.

Noble as it was by a new board attempting to promote a culture of democracy, the decision came too late, instead of too early, to avoid kids being caught in the crossfire of warring factions.

Facts and figures form background to Stephen Kenny contract talks

Ireland manager Stephen Kenny showed his steely side in brokering a succession clause with John Delaney and will be equipped for another scrap on his latest contract.

Three years ago, it took a guarantee of the senior job for Kenny to quit Dundalk for the Ireland U21s and he wasn’t letting Covid-19 get in the way of the handover with Mick McCarthy being executed on time last year.

This time, ahead of his meeting with Delaney’s successor Jonathan Hill, the negotiating environment is different.

A report card from his 20 games in the big gig will show four wins, those coming in the last six months against Andorra, Azerbaijan, Qatar, and Luxembourg.

For all the talk of new blood, when Kenny had his strongest squad for the last game in the Grand Duchy, eight of the starters had been capped before his arrival.

Of the three others, Gavin Bazunu is the find of the year, Adam Idah has yet to score while Chiedozie Ogbene was a late bloomer at 24.

Kenny’s deal will be extended beyond the current expiration of July but the duration may depend on agreed targets being met.

His annual salary, currently €540,000, and the size of his backroom staff, are sure to be on agenda as the FAI tackle their financial realities.

Stephen O’Donnell exit an example of league’s need for long-term thinking

Stephen O’Donnell was deep into his first press conference as Dundalk manager on Monday when he understandably missed the element of irony in his words.

“You know yourself, football can change in a minute,” he said about recruitment of players. “You might think that you’ve something done and then the whole thing turns on its head.”

Garrett Kelleher can attest to that transient syndrome in League of Ireland. Within two days of watching the rookie he’d handed a managerial gateway to lift the FAI Cup, the Saints owner was left jilted.

Loyalty wasn’t a factor in his decision to jump ship, according to O’Donnell, who felt he had more than repaid the faith shown in him by the billionaire benefactor.

Kelleher has been a force of good for Irish football, not just for pumping millions into the Saints since taking ownership in 2007 but also for calling the FAI hierarchy to task when required, even during the John Delaney era.

Short-term contracts are an unwelcome symptom of the precarious nature of domestic football but that’s an area Kelleher will have to address, for both players and staff, if the unforeseen exit of his rising managerial star is to be deemed a one-off glitch.