Premiership standards led to players’ demands

THE expectations of players used to the English Premiership led them to demand far higher standards of service and support than a time-warped FAI was able to deliver, the Genesis report found.

It said football had changed enormously over the past decade with far greater media interest and commercial potential but the FAI had not changed to meet these new challenges and demands.

Consultant Alistair Gray said at the time of the turning point in Irish soccer, Italia’90, the Premiership didn’t exist but now almost all teenage Irish soccer players with potential went straight into that structure.

“They have excellent conditions in training, coaching, nutrition, massage and this experience has raised expectations to a much higher standard of service and support,” he said.

He added: “Roy Keane is at the extreme edge of these expectations. He is a perfectionist to extreme, making him appear more extreme and intimidating than perhaps he is.”

Invitations were issued to all 23 World Cup squad members to meet with the consultants and 14 were eventually interviewed.

Mr Gray joked that while these players were extremely helpful, the process of getting to talk to them through their clubs had taken “the usual 10 phone calls and 50 e-mails before the poor protected souls were exposed to us”.

He said their views on their World Cup experience were consistent in that they all wanted specially chartered flights for international trips, better protection from the media, masseurs as well as their physiotherapists and better arrangements for family members accompanying them although they stressed they did not expect the FAI to foot the bill for family visits.

The consultants felt it significant that Roy Keane was not at the team meeting the day before Niall Quinn’s testimonial when it was made clear Saipan was about acclimatisation and not serious training.

They also highlighted the view of many interviewees that the decision to bring journalists to Saipan when it was not even a true training camp meant there was little news and any incident was going to become a big story.

They recommended that journalists never travel with the team in future or be accommodated in the same hotel and that accompanying officials also be kept to the bare minimum.