Rooney plays hardball when it comes to business of football

The FAI’s new chief executive, Fran Rooney, is a man of firm action and strong words. Bill George reports.

IT is not so long ago that the principal executive of the FAI posed for TV by sitting in the boot of a car and waving delightedly for the cameras as he was driven away to welcome Jack Charlton and Ireland on their return from a major championship.

That gauche and embarrassing image confirmed, for many, the lack of status of an organisation more celebrated in its frailties and its foibles than its wisdom or dynamism.