Rooney’s ambition is leagues ahead

SO what do you talk to Fran Rooney about on the day before the Cabinet makes its decision on the National Stadium?

Like a student waiting for the Leaving results, like a politician waiting for an election outcome, all the other things in the life of Fran Rooney get pushed aside into momentary irrelevance.

On the boardroom table in his office at FAI HQ in Merrion Square lies an artist's impression of the proposed stadium at Lansdowne Road.

We pore over it for a couple of moments, taking in its clean symmetrical lines, the silvery colours, the dramatically curving sweep of the stands. It looks like a spaceship that has been magically docked in an affluent neighbourhood of Dublin 4.

As Rooney points out the main features of the 50,000 seat facility, you become conscious that you are quite literally looking at the future of his organisation. Without the stadium and the ability to host international games both the FAI and the IRFU will face a bleak and uncertain future.

Put at its crudest, it goes something like this: No stadium; fewer bums on seats; no corporate stuff; less merchandising; less money; bad knock-on effect for soccer at grassroots and

underage levels; worsening standard of international teams as fewer quality players come through ergo, even fewer bums on seats.

Tomorrow the Cabinet will sit down and, after an aeon of deliberation, finally make its decision on a National Stadium. It's certain it will give it the go-ahead. It's almost as certain that it will choose Lansdowne Road over Abbotstown. Still, there's a chance that one or both decisions will go against the joint wishes of the IRFU/FAI, or that a decision will be deferred. Hence all the nervousness in Merrion Square.

The essence of what Rooney wants is uttered in his first line of the interview and is repeated, almost word for word, in his last. "Our key requirement is to get a stadium."

First to Rooney himself. His office is on the first floor of a Georgian building in Merrion Square. There's lots of memorabilia on the wall.

But the overall effect is unshowy and understated. Like Rooney himself. A stocky man dressed in shirt-sleeves, he is measured in manner. There are no extravagant anecdotes, no bits of ego-massaging. There is an unremitting focus on the business to be done.

There are times when Rooney sounds exactly like a League of Ireland manager. It's the refreshingly unreconstructed Dublin accent, the way he talks about the game, the way he alludes to the "community of football". Later, when he tells you that he took the job primarily as a labour of love, you have no reason whatever to doubt him.

For the most part, Rooney speaks like the international business executive he was, and is. Answers to questions come in the oral equivalent of a PowerPoint demonstration as he impressively goes through the seven or eight reasons or factors or key-requirements or metrics that make such-and-such a phenomenon so.

Rooney sets out the critical case for a stadium. The business of sports is changing, he says, and the FAI will need significant investment to help it develop all aspects of soccer.

"Revenue for that investment comes from match-day revenue. Revenue is factored by the number of people who can get into grounds, by the quality of seating, by our ability to provide corporate hospitality and merchandising opportunities.

"A quality stadium will give us the opening to gain more revenue to re-invest in the grass roots of the game" He puts the stadium question into a broader context. "It's a very important thing to remember that we are an international game. Soccer is played in every country of the world. We are in a very competitive environment. The international senior team is ranked 14th in the world and to stay at that level we need to continuously invest in the game.

"Any reduction in investment will threaten the long-term existence of the game. The key factor is that if our world ranking starts to drop, our attraction as a national team starts to drop. Our ability to attract revenue is threatened."

Rooney quickly rattles through some figures and stats. The FAI has a revenue stream of 12 million per annum. Last year, they invested 2m-3m into the underage international setup. In the long term, the overall revenues have to increase if soccer wants to continue to compete on a (forgive the metaphor) level playing field.

Rooney talks of the excellent relationship he has built up with Sports Minister John O'Donoghue. He also says the Government is well aware of the FAI's strength of feeling on Lansdowne. He is cool on Abbotstown but the only decisions he can think of that would be fatal is a 'no' decision, or a delayed decision.

"A delay would be disastrous," he says before pointing out sharpish that sports organisations also carry their own political weight.

"One of the things that we need to remember is that the soccer people in Ireland are an important constituency and are a very strong political lobby.

"We have started to organise ourselves in that regard and asking our people to exert pressure on politicians in relation to the stadium. The community of soccer in Ireland will be disappointed with Government parties if a stadium is not delivered. And also with any politicians who are seen not to support an early decision."

Back to Fran Rooney and why the once stellar star of the Irish dotcom revolution opted for the less rarefied atmosphere of the FAI after the Baltimore Technologies bubble had burst.

"The first thing is it's is a labour of love. I have been involved in football since the time I was a child, as a fan, a player and as a coach. During the years, I built up a strong belief in the action that needed to be taken to improve football in Ireland.

"With the relevant financial experience that I have developed allied to my love of football, the job was very attractive to me because it gave me the opportunity to implement changes that I believe in, that everybody connected to the game has been crying out for years."

But was it not a step-down?

"I never considered it as a step-down. I could maybe make more money outside football. It's not about money but bringing real changes that's important to me."

When Rooney arrived at Merrion Square last year, he found structures and management practices that were "out-dated and unwieldy".

Rooney whittled the management committee down from 23 to 10, changed structures, refocused management so that "there was more decisiveness in taking key business decisions in a timely manner".

He gives three quick examples of practical change. There was a gap in the schedule and an international with Turkey was slotted in (bringing in 300,000 of revenue). He knew that the Brazil international would attract a full house but the friendlies with Croatia and Romania might not. So the three were all cleverly fused to comprise one package.

There's also a new TV deal with RTÉ, in addition to the Sky deal.

The recent spat with leading figures in the league reflect a resistance to some of his more radical decisions.

"There's a huge desire for change. By and large everybody connected with the game understands that change at times will require a degree of pain. It will mean decisions that will not necessarily reflect everybody's opinion."

WHY the need for root-and-branch change in the league? "The metric for measuring the league is how well we are doing in Europe. At the moment we are ranked 37th out of 52 leagues and this is clearly below the standard that we should have for a country of our size and economic development.

"If you look at the development of Norwegian football over the past 15 years. They started off from the same base but have clearly outstripped us. "The first issue in relation to development of league is the quality of product and the attraction of the game for the fans and as a TV spectacle."

The challenge, according to Rooney, is "to develop the quality of the match day experience to attract more spectators to the grounds which will assist the club in generating revenue". That will help make it a fully professional league, not just a feeder league for young hopefuls with ambitions across the water.

On a strict business line, Rooney wants to improve significantly on the organisation's 12m revenue stream, perhaps doubling it in the long term. A realistic ambition for the league would be to see it in the top 20 in Europe, he predicts.

But the first step in that ambitious journey will revolve around the decision to be taken by others tomorrow.

"Our key requirement is a stadium," he reiterates.