Corcoran says FAI have no shortlist for McCarthy successor

FAI president Milo Corcoran yesterday dismissed suggestions that association officers had already drawn up a shortlist of candidates to fill the vacancy as international team manager left by the resignation of Mick McCarthy.

Mr Corcoran said “We have not mentioned the name of any one individual in relation to the job, absolutely not.

“There is no immediate rush to appoint a replacement. We do not have a competitive match until March so it is obvious we have some time and the most important consideration is to find the right man. The FAI officer board on Saturday decided to set up a four-man committee to decide on the course of action that will be followed and to dictate the process of selecting the new manager.

They will present the names of the special committee before the International Committee today for their approval. If their recommendation is endorsed then it will be put to the Committee of Management tomorrow for final approval and they will immediately get to work.

Mr Corcoran is a member of the proposed committee together with general secretary Brendan Menton, treasurer John Delaney along with International Committee chairman and FAI secretary Kevin Fahy t is probable the committee will seek the help of professional consultants to organise the search for a suitable appointee. And the only restriction that will influence the eventual appointment will be that dictated by the FAI’s balance sheet.

The officer board of the FAI met with consultants who prepared a report on Ireland’s World Cup arrangements on Saturday and engaged in a six-hour meeting that consisted of the presentation of a written report, verbal submissions supported by a slide presentation and a questions and answers session.

The consultants, Scottish-based firm Genesis, will return to Ireland tomorrow to present the written report to the International Committee. After this it will be presented to the press.

Until then the report is to remain confidential and the president reacted angrily to newspaper speculation yesterday on the contents of the report. He said: “If I find anyone has broken a confidence then I will call for that person’s resignation.”

Mr Corcoran referred to a report in a Sunday newspaper which claimed to attribute references to some of the inevitable conclusions of the report to “one insider”.

Said Mr Corcoran: “The meeting was attended by the officer board of the FAI and the representatives of

Genesis.

“It was agreed that nobody would take away a copy of the written report and this was complied with.

“It was also agreed there would be no public disclosures of what was contained in the report, on the conclusions reached by the investigating company and their recommendations.

“All of those present subscribed to this course of action and I am extremely annoyed at the suggestion that somebody has divulged some elements of the report.

“It was always our intention to release the report to the public as soon as possible and we intend to do that on Tuesday. That is surely as quickly as anyone could wish for.

“It is obvious that we need to present this report to our professional staff and to anybody who might be named in the report before we present it to the public.

“There have been too many leaks involving the business of the FAI.

“There have been times when it seemed we were conducting our business in the public glare. That has got to change.

“We do not run a secret service but it is not good for the association to have all of our business debated in the public domain.

“We have appointed capable PR officers to handle our publicity and I will be insisting on having our business routed through them.”