Eamon Dunphy column: FAI should really be renamed as GUBU as it stumbles from crisis to crisis
The FAI's farcical late application for a grant from the Brexit fund should have ruled David Courell out of the running for the position of CEO
In Ireland, we consume a lot of English media. We watch English television, and read their newspapers. So we're familiar with the way they cover football.
How often do you see stories about the English FA? Very rarely. Travel around Europe and it's the same story. Football administrators and governing bodies in most countries are in the background.
Football fans rarely give them a moment's thought. If only that was the case in Ireland. We all know about what was going on during the John Delaney years - or we think we do. There may be more revelations to come.
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But the FAI was a basket case before Delaney too. Think of what emerged after the World Cup 30 years ago.
The FAI's strategy over the two World Cups in 1990 and 1994 had been to buy non-Irish match tickets and trade these in exchange for Irish match tickets. Then a character by the name of 'George the Greek' became part of the mystery with the FAI saying they had dealt with him as a known ticket dealer, not realising he was a tout and that he had disappeared with the tickets.
During the 1970s, Ireland regularly played Poland in friendlies, which caused some bemusement. But it emerged that the popularity of this fixture was down to some dodgy business by a couple of FAI officials at the time.
Dollars could be exchanged for ten-times their face value and one FAI Council member used to buy women's underwear in bulk to sell back home in Ireland. Delaney wasn't the only CEO to leave under a cloud, either.
More recently, we had the ludicrous situation where Jonathan Hill never moved to live in Ireland, and a cosy arrangement over payment for time off in lieu summed up another forgettable appointment.
To anybody who loves Irish soccer and wants real change, the FAI need someone in charge who is tough and capable and who has no time for the nonsense of the past.
Sarah Keane went for the job when Hill got it. She was also in the frame this time around, but the FAI have given the CEO post to David Courell, who had been doing the job on an interim basis.
To me, Courell is a company man. An insider, and I believe the FAI need an outsider to try and turn things around. Look at what Keane had to deal with. She took on the main leadership roles at two organisations that were in such a bad state that they had to change their names.
Irish swimming had been rocked by sexual abuse cases, and a failure to address then properly. The Irish Olympic movement had become a personal fiefdom of Pat Hickey and his arrest at the Rio Olympics over a ticketing issue became a global story.
Keane had to rebuild two organisations that were seen as toxic. She did so brilliantly. The Olympic Federation of Ireland has just had an exceptional Games in Paris, and Swim Ireland provided two medalists in Daniel Wiffen and Mona McSharry.
But it's not just about medals. Swim Ireland and the OFI are professional, transparent bodies now. You will struggle to find anyone who deals with them who isn't impressed.
Imagine what Keane would do with the FAI. I think she'd transform Irish soccer from top to bottom. She knows how to negotiate with government, something that is crucial now, and would have no time for the petty politics of the past and present in the game here.
Instead, we have Courell. Who is he? Well, his CV includes a stint working at the 2012 Olympics, with the Paralympics movement in the UK and with the English FA.
All of those are well funded organisations with plenty of resources and infrastructure. They couldn't be more different to the situation in Irish football.
There is one overriding reason why I think Courell should not have got the CEO job. During his time as interim CEO, the FAI missed the deadline to apply for funding from the government's Brexit Adjustment Fund.
Last month, Courell told the FAI AGM that the FAI were hopeful of getting up to €20m from this fund over a two year period. What happened? Minister Pascal Donohoe had to tell the FAI publicly that they'd missed the deadline to apply for funding.
If this was a junior soccer club in Ballygobackwards, you'd have those in charge pushed out the exit door. That those at the top of Irish football couldn't get their act together to apply in time for game-changing funding is veering into GUBU territory.
For younger readers, that is a reference to Irish politics in the 1980s and stands for grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented.
Indeed, you could argue that if the FAI were to follow swimming and the Olympic movement in changing their name, they could call themselves GUBU.
I think Courell should have been ruled out as a potential CEO because of the Brexit fund fiasco. Irish football is a laughing stock, and other sports in Ireland have pulled way ahead.
In my opinion, there is a clique in the FAI who are holding the game back here. They promote each other and give each other fancy new job titles and it doesn't seem to matter what mistakes are made or, in the Brexit fund case, massive blunders, they carry on regardless.
It's depressing and grim. It's been the bane of Irish football for decades. We have always been held back by the blazers.
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