FAI needs a radical overhaul

FIVE months after a fiasco that saw Ireland’s World Cup dream turn into a nightmare, the reverberations were still being felt last night as FAI supremo Brendan Menton fell on his sword following damning criticism of the planning and preparation for the Republic’s involvement in soccer’s greatest event.

Inevitably, the findings of the consultants’ report, commissioned after Roy Keane’s ignominious departure from the Irish squad, will be seen as a vindication of the captain as the spotlight turns on official blundering in the worst debacle in the history of Irish soccer.

Recommending sweeping changes, the report has rightly concluded the FAI’s management was virtually non-existent and its handling of Saipan utterly inept.