Menton insists no one pushed him from top of FAI

Ex-FAI general secretary Brendan Menton has insisted he was under no pressure to step down from his €150,000 a year job, but he did so to allow radical change take place.

And, in the wake of his resignation, it emerged last night that former Chief Executive of the English Football Association, Adam Crozier, has confirmed he is not interested in taking up the FAI Chief Executive position. Crozier’s name was linked to the FAI vacancy, due to his experience with the English FA.

Whoever is appointed, it is going to cost the FAI serious amounts of money.

The Genesis report on the fall-out from Saipan and the future management of the FAI has outlined an investment of €250,000 must be made in the appointment of key new executives.

And although there is the possibility to make some savings as a result of Menton’s resignation, the FAI must look to increase annual subscriptions to raise an additional €63,000 for each of the next four years to pay for the radical changes.

FAI Treasurer John Delaney said last night: ‘‘We don’t see this as too much of a price to pay to lay the future of the association in good stead. At the end of the day it’s not a question of money; it’s a question of absolutely having to change.’’

Along with the new chief executive’s position, to be filled in the next three months, the other four prescribed appointments would be: director of performance, director of football operations, director of marketing and communications and director of finance and administration.

For his part, Brendan Menton was yesterday maintaining that his decision to step down was a personal decision and was not caused by the Genesis report’s criticism of Ireland’s World Cup organisation.

“I was absolutely under no pressure from anybody in football to make this decision and I surprised a lot of people within football by my decision,” he said.

“I made the decision for personal reasons, for professional reasons,” he said on RTE Radio. “The biggest question I had to make was whether I announced this to coincide with the Genesis report and linked the two and set heads rolling.

“I have not resigned, I have stepped aside. I have created the gap in which the change can be implemented very quickly.

“When I came into the job I saw it as running football and as somebody who loves football and who has been involved in football all my life, I thought this is the ideal job.

“But as it transpires the job of general secretary of the FAI doesn’t really have that much to do with football. I came to realise this fairly quickly but as Genesis has brought home to everybody, the FAI is a business. It’s a 20 million business and it needs structures and people to support that business to run it efficiently.

“Because we were short of management resources these things never seemed to come to the top and we never seemed to change rapidly enough. I was under no pressure and I surprised a lot of people within football by my decision.”