John Martin on Michael Noonan saga: Any agreements I made were always in the best interest of Shamrock Rovers

FAI director of football John Martin poses for a portrait during an FAI football media briefing at the Aviva Stadium. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile.

John Martin has broken his silence on the Michael Noonan contract saga by insisting he was acting in the best interests of Shamrock Rovers.

Martin is the former chief executive of the League of Ireland champions, but left in August and became the FAI’s new director of football the following month.

But Martin found himself in the eye of a storm in February after it emerged that FIFA and the English FA were examining a complaint over agent agreements.

Last year, the family of Rovers striker Noonan lodged a complaint to the English FA regarding a transfer agreement.

It centred on the deal struck between the player’s agent, David Moss, and Martin, when he was Rovers CEO, when Noonan signed from St Pat’s ahead of the 2025 season.

Moss has already stated that he complied with “all legal and regulatory requirements”, and said he acted in the player’s interest.

Shamrock Rovers self-reported the Noonan contract matter - and that of another player - to FIFA.

Essentially, FIFA are establishing if the deals are fully compliant with regulations governing transfers and third-party ownership of players.

The sport’s governing body outlawed such agreements in 2015.

Noonan is one of the league’s hottest young properties and has been on the radar of big clubs such as Manchester City and Celtic. In January, the 17-year-old Ireland Under-21 international turned down a €1.8 million move to German club Hoffenheim.

Shamrock Rovers have said they “are not the subject of investigation from any of the FA, FAI or FIFA”, but are assisting FIFA with a matter that brought heat on Martin after his high-profile move to the FAI.

The FAI have already backed him and questioned on the matter for the first time today, Martin said: “I know Rovers have referred to FIFA and they're looking for clarity on that. I understand nothing has come back from FIFA yet on it. I suppose when something does come back maybe there's something to discuss at that stage.”

But Martin continued: “My views on that agreement and any agreements I made were always made in the best interest of the football club. No other way of looking at it. When I was there, I gave everything I had to the job. I gave my life to the job. I think anyone who's close to me will know that.

FAI Director of Football John Martin. Pic: ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne

“In all cases in Rovers you just want to sign the best players. You want to hopefully sell players. In some cases, my job there was to make sure we got the best players in.

“I suppose there's not too much else I can say on that. There's probably no specifics of any player contract in Rovers. I'd give away. I did what I thought was in the best interest of the club, which was to sign good players.”

Asked if he would have done anything different in relation to the contract deal for Noonan, Martin said: “I don't know.

“(I was) there for a couple of years and I probably made hundreds, if not thousands, of decisions. Sometimes I felt like I was doing that, hundreds of thousands every week. It's a bit of the burden of leadership. You have to make decisions all the time. That's the role.

“Of course you look back and say maybe I might have done this different or that different across a range of different things in the club. I go back to my old corporate days. There's things. you go back and say, ‘God yeah, I'd probably do that slightly differently’.

“I think without getting into specifics of any agreements, there's always things you would probably do a little bit differently for sure.”

Martin was then asked if mistakes had been made on his part, but he said: “I don't know. I suppose it probably depends on what comes back. I know Rovers have referred it (to FIFA). It's not something that's come my way in this position to determine. I suppose it's to not pre-empt what might come back on that.”

Martin, who has not spoken directly to FIFA about the contract matter, said he has gone through an “awful time” since the story broke in February.

“It is awful. It comes with the job, so I'm not naive,” he added. “You come into a football role, and everyone loves football, everyone's got an opinion on football. There's going to be scrutiny that comes with the role, that comes with the territory. Do you want this? You never want it.

“A lot of the time it's probably not so much for yourself. It's something you don't want your parents seeing or reading, or even your kids.

“I’m conscious of the fact that sometimes Irish football doesn't have a great reputation. Suddenly I feel like I've come into the role to try and make a difference. I love the role; I mean that genuinely. I love working for the FAI, I love being in there. You'd hate that you could damage that in some way. It's not nice.”