The football gospel according to John
For the past week the West County Hotel in Ennis has been base camp for John Delaney and his army of support staff on their magical tour around Clare, with John Aldridge and Ray Houghton also on board, charming a county that all week has charmed them in return. This is how it has been since Delaney took over as chief executive seven years ago. The old-style AGM, as he puts it himself, “might have been over a rule change in the Citywest on a Saturday”, reinforcing the image of an out-of-touch, Dublin-dominated association that would squabble over the placement of a comma. Now pedantic rule changes are dealt with at low-key EGMs; AGMs are an opportunity to reach out to the regions and have a week-long celebration of the game. Counties bid to host the event. In recent years the roadshow has rolled into Kerry, Mayo, Monaghan and last year, Wexford. Donegal, Wicklow and Westmeath are lined up to stage the next three. Just as the game has spread, the association has reached out as well.
Delaney knows how tough and isolated it can feel, championing the garrison game outside the garrison towns. Although he was born in Waterford 42 years ago, he grew up in Tipperary town and attended the local Abbey CBS where the only game of soccer they played was on Delaney’s last day in the school. “We’d just finished our Leaving,” he says, “and I insisted we play a soccer game on the front pitch that last day. I told them they couldn’t stop us because it was our last day there anyway.”
Even expressing an interest in the game was viewed as a form of rebellion. When Delaney was 10 he was sent home from hurling training by Brother McLoughney for wearing an Irish soccer jersey.
“I’ll never forget it. That night my father rang the brother and said that I’d be wearing my soccer jersey the next time we had hurling training. ‘Do you understand, Brother?’ he told him. The next day I turned up in my soccer jersey and was allowed to train.”
That wasn’t the best bit. Twenty years later Brother McLoughney phoned that same kid, looking for a ticket to see Tottenham.
Today a set of soccer posts can also be seen in the grounds of the Abbey who compete in organised leagues. Yet as widespread as the game is now, it has other problems and challenges too.
The 10-year Vantage Club ticket scheme for the Aviva Stadium was seriously overpriced and undersubscribed, leaving the association with a current debt level of €67 million. Money’s so tight, Delaney’s own must be mentioned.
A year ago his yearly salary was €430,000 and though it was cut by €17,500 last August, that still left him making more than the head of the English FA, the Taoiseach and president of the United States. This weekend in Ennis, Delaney will inform delegates he’s taking a further voluntary cut of €32,500.
“You need to show leadership,” he says. “I’m well paid, I accept that. The board of the FAI have set that pay but I do work very, very hard and the view of the board would be that I’ve delivered.”
For one he can tell delegates this weekend he’s delivered a €3m grant from UEFA whom he says have told him that if there was an award for the most improved national association in the confederation, it’s the FAI. “The grant is a sign of how they recognise how we’re developing ourselves, and obviously it’s very welcome. It’s been a tough financial year. Attendances haven’t been as good as we want.”
The recent Carling Nations Cup was played in front of swathes of empty seats. Delaney though justifies the staging of the competition, on football grounds alone.
“It was absolutely crucial for the national team. Shay Given hadn’t played in five or six months; Robbie Keane, Darren O’Dea and Keith Andrews hadn’t been playing much with their clubs. Those games were crucial for preparing for the Macedonia game which was must-win for us.
“It’s a tough economy. Attendances at GAA matches have been affected this summer. I know the rugby are concerned about attendances next year when it’s Italy, Wales and Scotland that are coming to Dublin as opposed to England and France. The truth of it now is people only want to attend the big occasions. Slovakia in September will be a big game. If we win that a lot of people will want to come to see the Armenia game. But for friendly games and earlier qualification matches against teams that aren’t marquee names, it’s going to be difficult. People just don’t have the money. It’s not even the cost of a ticket; it’s the cost of your diesel, your food.”
He outlines how the FAI have shown flexibility by adjusting their ticket prices. A 16-year-old can catch six Ireland games and the FAI Cup final this year all for €55. If a club brings 50 heads to next month’s friendly against Croatia, the lot of them will be covered for €500. He also thinks of how worse off the association would be if it had pushed on with eircom Park, a project Delaney always opposed.
“Could you imagine now if we had a stadium out by Citywest? Or Abbotstown, to be fair. Wouldn’t work. Irish people like a stadium in the centre of the city. We like to have a pint before the game, a pint afterwards.”
For five years there Delaney effectively had two jobs; overseeing the development of the Aviva alone would take up 40 hours a week. But, he says, it was worth it, his eyes lighting up at the memory of Michael Hyland’s welling up the day it opened back in May last year. “I thought I’d never see the day,” the association’s former president confessed to Delaney. Finally football people could feel a parity of esteem.
In all his time though Delaney hasn’t come across a football man quite like Giovanni Trappatoni. The Italian had already accepted the job before he ever met Delaney in person but that first meeting only confirmed for Delaney that Ireland had found the right man.
“What struck me was his humility and his passion. Liam Brady and myself went over to see Salzburg play and after the game Giovanni drove us to the restaurant, in his car. He dropped us back to our hotel. How many managers in the Premiership would do that? They’d say, ‘We’ll meet you in the restaurant.’” Then, in the restaurant, Trapp started animatedly moving the salt and pepper around the table, demonstrating how Doyle and Keane were playing too close to one another and how, under him, they’d move and work in synch.
“The man is just so passionate and knowledgeable about the game. We were in camp in Portugal (in May 2008). Man United and Chelsea were playing in the Champions League final and we all watched the game on a big screen. So, at half-time it’s 1-1 and everyone stands up and starts making their way to get their cup of coffee or a bottle of water when he jumps in front of everybody. Jumps! And he starts to explain to the players the mistakes Chelsea and United have made. And I’m just looking at Damian Duff who is just staring at him, totally captivated. That’s the passion he has and the respect he commands.”
But what about his reluctance to go over to England and see games and players in the flesh? Have Delaney and the FAI not challenged him over this? “Well, how relevant is that (issue) on its own really?” says Delaney. “The most important thing for him is when he gets to work with the players.”
But what about what the camera cannot see – the runs a player makes, his body language – and meeting his loved ones after games? Again, Delaney doesn’t see it as an issue. Marco Tardelli covers all that and Trappatoni trusts Tardelli completely. It’s like business. Managers fly around here and there trying to do everything. Leaders step back and see the bigger picture. But, Delaney has observed, once the players fly in and meet up, Trappatoni is hands-on. Delaney is convinced that if Ireland qualify for a major tournament, then they’ll advance to the knockout stages of that tournament as well.
“The longer the period of time he gets to work with the players, the better the results will be. We’ve won four games in a row now and that’s because all the players know the system and they play to the system. When we qualify for a tournament, that’s when we’ll really see the benefit of Trappatoni. He’ll have the players for at least a month and it will show.”
IF the eccentricities and workings of one well-aged man encourage and entertain Delaney, then those of another disturb him. Sepp Blatter remains as both president and an embarrassment to FIFA and while Delaney didn’t vote against him at the recent FIFA congress, he says it was only because it wasn’t the right time to strike.
“There’ll be a lot to be said some day about FIFA’s dealings. The real aim for me is to make sure Michel Platini becomes president of FIFA. But if you study the political landscape of FIFA, UEFA isn’t liked that much amongst the other confederations because it’s seen as rich and where all the best footballers go. But I think Michel will get there in four years time.
“FIFA has a serious credibility issue. With UEFA they listen to your ideas and debate it. I brought increasing the number of teams at the Euros from 16 to 24, and centralising TV rights which will give us €40 million over four years. With Platini he’s a driven man who just wants to improve the game. Whether his opinions are correct is open to debate but he’ll tell you football is about opinions and there’s no doubt that his motives are pure.”
It used to be not that long ago that the FAI itself was continuously mired in some scandal or internal crisis but under Delaney it has enjoyed an unprecedented period of stability. Occasionally the odd PR gaffe will arise but the association is no longer a national joke. Instead it deals with the more mundane but vital issues like coaching the coaches and providing sport in disadvantaged areas, something you’ll never see on Prime Time.
Even Delaney’s own popularity has improved. The more time goes on and the more people meet him in the flesh, the more they’re surprised by his personable manner. One former Irish international said after meeting Delaney for the first time, “I wanted him to be a c**t, but he wasn’t.” One school principal told him, “You’re a lot less serious than you look on the television.”
Weeks like this past one in Clare, he’s been in his element. Not so long ago the GAA seemed to be the only sport known for its connection to its grassroots; under Delaney, the FAI have shown no such monopoly exists. He speaks of the reception the FAI party received in clubs like Connolly Celtic, Sixmilebridge, Corofin Harps where he met Seamus Clancy, the former GAA All Star, whose son plays soccer. He raves about the facilities at Burren United in Lisdoonvarna where a GAA pitch and soccer pitch lie side by side.
It’s the way of the future. Delaney’s not calling on the GAA to amend or scrap Rule 42 but after meeting Michael Ring, the junior sports minister, he knows the government now favours shared usage.
“There’s no point in a town having an all-weather facility for soccer and then another for rugby and another for GAA. We did a wonderful scheme recently where we helped install 65 mini-pitches in inner city areas where you can play basketball and hockey and all kinds of other sports. It was funded by UEFA as well as the government and the local authorities and our money because the way we see it, every kid should have the choice to play the sport he or she wants to play. They shouldn’t be told ‘This is the sport you’re playing.’” That’s how it was for Delaney. His father Joe was a well-known football administrator but never forced the sport upon his son. As a youngster John played hurling, football, rugby and a couple of racquet sports. But soccer was always going to be his choice. At weekends he’d follow his father and Waterford United all around the country, from the Showgrounds in Sligo to Flower Lodge in Cork. Plus, there was Shay Brennan. Shay came to the house for a weekend when he hit upon hard times and stayed for six years. Shay was the first player to score for Manchester United after the Munich Air Disaster and won the European Cup 10 years later. When you deliver bread at weekends with a European Cup winner, football was always going to be your game.
Delaney’s own son plays a range of sports. On Saturday mornings Delaney will often drive Thomas to train with Villa in Waterford and then straight after bring him over to hurl with Ballygunner. Sometimes that shift hasn’t been easy. A couple of years ago Delaney got back from a function in Monaghan at 4.am, only to be awoken four hours later by a six-year-old Thomas already kitted out in his tracksuit. His father looked to pass the gig on to Thomas’s mother but the youngster insisted.
“So, I’m there, on a cold, November morning, watching on with bleary eyes when what does he do but score a goal. It was his first-ever goal! And he ran right across to me, celebrating, and threw his arms around me. There was no camera there that morning but that image I’ll never forget. And I’ve thought about it a lot since. If I hadn’t got out of bed that morning, I would never have seen his first goal. So I often tell parents to watch your kids play, don’t just use the club as a drop-off centre and then go and get the hair cut. Watch them and encourage them because when they do something good, they’re looking across for you.”
Sometimes Delaney can’t make all Thomas’s games. It’s the nature of this job. It consumes him. He speaks at length about how an U19 national league will help players have a greater affinity and association with a region, how he wants an academy in Abbotstown, how the Airtricity league is improving even if it’s not yet where he or it wants to be.
“When I started seven years ago we were not close to our stakeholders. We were permanently in difficulty, a chief executive every year or two. The first thing I wanted to create in the organisation. It’s a privilege to be in this job. But the day I wake up and I’m tired of it or the other members of the board don’t want me, I’ll go. Because when I leave, I want to be able to go to the Aviva Stadium and meet members and be received well and for us to recall ‘Remember that pitch we opened in Clare’, things like that. That hasn’t happened too much to previous chief executives but that’s something I want.”
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