Brave new world beckons for rejigged sport’s body

ONE image summed up the challenges facing the Football Association of Ireland as its delegates gathered in Galway at the weekend for what turned out to be a historic annual general meeting.

On the other side of the country, Damien Duff was pictured in his brand new top of the range Merc complete with personalised licence plate and a price tag several times the average annual industrial wage.

This is the same Duff who has been on the airwaves and in print recently as the face and voice of Hibernian

Insurance's new Ignition scheme which offers discounted insurance cover for young drivers who take an advanced driving course and use a car with an engine size no bigger than 1.4 litres.

Damien is pictured in the ads sitting in a canary yellow three-door of the kind that generally has a one-litre heart about as far removed from the silver-pelted 5-litre monster he himself prefers.

And why wouldn't he? Chelsea are chasing him with a reputed €26 million transfer deal backed by the bounteousness of a Russian billionaire and other Premiership clubs are begging their bank managers to allow them better the offer. It's not the kind of news you celebrate by splashing out on a Fiat Punto.

But a lot of Duff's fans drive Puntos and fret about affording their car insurance.

Many more drive borrowed minibuses crammed with schoolboy teams and fret about insurance for the Lotto-funded clubhouse. Others take the bus and fret about putting dinner on the table.

The FAI's task is to move between those two worlds the one occupied by billionaire Russians and 24-year- olds with €90,000 Mercs and the one inhabited by people who struggle to pay the subscription for Sky Sports - without neglecting either.

Outwardly, since the Genesis Report into the FAI failings and fumblings that led to the Saipan fiasco, most of the TLC appears to have been lavished on the former.

The Republic of Ireland senior squad has been allocated additional resources, there is more detailed planning and preparation for games and they now travel on charter planes instead of economy class scheduled flights more in line with what they are used to in the premiership.

There are two extra public relations consultants to manage the demands for media access to the players and the new chief executive Fran Rooney spends more time talking directly with them so there is greater clarity in their relationship with coach Brian Kerr.

He concentrates on coaching and if they have issues outside of that, they go directly to the top.

Within FAI headquarters, a personnel expert is now in place working on everything from job descriptions and contracts to the niggling little things that can make the difference between people feeling confident and competent in their duties and acting like they are constantly in chaos.

In all, the FAI says about 80% of the Genesis Report's recommendations have been implemented since the damning document was published last November, and that it is a far more slick and professional outfit than the one which the authors of the

report did all but laugh out loud at. But if the emperor of Merrion Square's nudity was plain to see, there was obviously something blocking or excluding his subjects from suggesting he cover his ugly bits.

Genesis hinted that the very structures of the organisation were to blame, being archaic, unwieldy and unworkable, and for once the chorus was one of approval.

That's what made the weekend's gathering in Galway so important. The most radical proposal from the steering committee set up to implement the Genesis Report recommended a complete overhaul and democratisation of the way the organisation's 180,000 players and many tens of thousands more supporters, officials and volunteers were represented.

Their plan was to slash the membership of the FAI board from 22 to 10 and replace the myriad of groupings that fed into the board with six clearly-defined new committees.

Seats on committees were previously divided between the various affiliates according to their size so the Leinster Football Association, for example, had a far greater presence than the women's or colleges branches.

They also tended to be guarded as jealously as a Dáil seat passed through three generations of FF family.

The new system would open up the membership, allocating eight of the 12 seats on each committee to the

affiliates but throwing open two more to election and leaving the last two to be selected by a three-member panel comprising the chief executive, the president and AN Other.

That way, a new breed with new blood who couldn't progress through the affiliate nomination system could boldly put themselves forward for election.

The selection panel could make up for shortcomings such as a lack of legal expertise or female participants, by picking people from inside or outside the FAI, or even outside soccer completely, to hold the last two seats.

Each committee of 12 would vote for their own chairman and the six chairmen would sit alongside the four officers, the chief executive, president, treasurer and honorary secretary, in making up the 10-man board.

If it sounds complicated, it's actually crystal clear compared to the baffling configuration that has existed until now.

The FAI embarked on a roadshow explaining the proposal to the grassroots over the last few months and the result was unanimous approval at the AGM on Saturday.

As one FAI employee coming to terms with the significance of the vote said afterwards: "Nothing in the FAI is ever unanimous."

But what will be the significance to the fan, or the volunteer coach or the parent who washes the jerseys for the local U10 team?

Starting today, nominations are being invited for membership of the committees and they should all be formed by the first meeting of the new board in September but it will probably be the next AGM, in July 2004, before the practical impact of the changes can be fully assessed.

In the meantime, Fran Rooney has been trying to change the mood in and outside the organisation so that players, employees and the public at least feel there is change even if they can't immediately point to a tangible result.

He has been popping in unceremoniously on small clubs and local playing pitches around the country and has jazzed up home internationals with music and flags and new crowd songs.

He has undoubtedly been helped by the positive results on the playing pitch of late but Rooney would argue the players are buoyed by the attitude of the organisation behind them as much as the organisation benefits from their success.

Arguably more crucial again is the symbiotic relationship between players and organization. Rooney's strategy is to invest to improve the all-round appearance and performance of the FAI at all levels so that in turn it is easier to attract money from sponsors, investors and taxpayers so that he can further invest and achieve more improvements and so on.

It's a head-spinning challenge almost like an autobahn ride in Damien Duff's new motor.

With crunch matches to come and Europe 2004 to follow with all the Saipanesque pitfalls it could present, he'll need to keep the top up.