'It's not the impossible job' - FAI confident of attracting right candidate to succeed Marc Canham

David Courell insists Marc Canham’s successor as Chief Football Officer will not be facing the impossible job. Pic Credit: ©INPHO/Laszlo Geczo.

The FAI insist Marc Canham’s successor as Chief Football Officer will not be facing the impossible job.

Candidates such as Leicester City assistant manager Brian Barry-Murphy have been linked with the vacancy since news emerged on Tuesday of Canham’s intention to quit after just under three years in the post.

Chief executive David Courell was queried on the matter at a press briefing scheduled for Wednesday ahead of this latest FAI episode and admitted the vacancy should be retitled.

It is widely felt that the pressure of a workload that increased when Canham was upgraded from director of football last September led to his abrupt decision.

His position has come under heavy scrutiny since last year’s botched search for a men’s team manager.

Appointing Eileen Gleeson to the women’s equivalent, with a reemployment clause in the case which unfolded of her being released, was also deemed a misstep. Gleeson remains on a six-figure salary in December but without a role.

Wider criticism was attracted for him driving the agenda to introduce summer soccer and while that aligns to the League of Ireland, that sector refused to cooperate with his planned centralised coaching system for the best teens.

Courell denied that the FAI would seek an Irish person after the tenures of Dutchmen Wim Koevermans, Ruud Dokter and then Canham ended contentiously.

He also confirmed the newcomer, which could take up to six months, won’t necessarily need to be wedded to the summer sea change.

"There is no doubt it is a difficult job but I don't believe it is an impossible job,” he said.

"I would not have taken on my position if I thought it was (either).

"We have a plan. We have done a lot of the ground work to establish that vision and now we are in an implementation phase.

"This is not a slight on Marc, just a recognition that whoever takes over from the good work he has done will have to have the ability to bring our stakeholders with us.

"In that programme for change, there will be people who are naturally uncomfortable.

“Therefore is very important that we have someone who can engage and communicate with people, so they can see the real value in this and take confidence that this is grounded in trying to improve Irish football."

He added: "The pathways plan is something that we shaped and created by Irish football for Irish football.

“I'm not going to say that whoever comes in can't have a degree of interpretation of it, but the framework is there and we're committed to it.

"I will be looking for a candidate who will come on board and see the value of the plan, and be supportive of it and see the merit of driving that change through for the future benefits of Irish football."

In the face of the backlash against the summer soccer edict, an alliance of leagues have joined forces, seeking to retain the right of choosing what format of season they decide.

This issue has migrated into the political sphere, with Social Democrats TD Aidan Farrelly the latest to speak out this week. Sports Minister Charlie McConalogue has arranged for public representatives to be given a presentation by the FAI in Leinster House next week.

"We are in Kildare Street next week doing a cross-party session with a range of ministers, kindly sponsored by minister McConalogue, where we will be educating our politicians about how this aligned calendar proposal has come about,” said Courell.

"It was a fully democratic process, backed unanimously by the board.

“At General Assembly, that vote was passed. You refer to that as resistance, I refer to it as a mandate that was given. It was not universally appreciated but ultimately that is democracy in action. We are committed to delivering it and to working with clubs so they can see all the positives that can come out of this.

"We are listening to them and the local needs of respective leagues. I think we have the mandate to drive it home."

Courell wasn’t prepared to delve into the reasons why large affiliates with board representation, the Schoolboys/girls FAI (SFAI) and Leinster FA, have since come out questioning the move that’s due to start in January.

"I can't speak for the internal machinations of the affiliates,” he replied about the confusion.

“All I can speak to is that we had unanimous support for the football pathways plan from our board and as part of that, the same goes for the aligned calendar. And most importantly we took it to a vote and it passed, that's all I can say.

“The board has been unanimous behind this and therefore, ultimately, we took it to the general assembly, the representative body of the game in this country, and it represents every single voice and we have a mandate, and we will deliver on it.

"Ultimately it's about engagement and making sure that people see that this decision is being taken for the right reasons.

“It will bring about greater alignment of our pathways, continuity to our pyramid and will present greater opportunities, extended hours, better pitches, better formats.

"I think some of the public narrative has been clouded by I think some misinformation.

“On occasion it has been presented as being quite binary. I think it is lost that we recognise there are local nuances to delivering the game and hence why we factored that in when we designed what we put forward.

"We've proposed a staggered increase to help that transition, to give us time to do that engagement, further engagement, just to make that clear, because we've already engaged extensively.

“Clearly more can be done and we're committed to doing that, we've reached out to every single League, and that's where we are.”