The ('''FAI'''; (soccer) in the
Republic Of Ireland . It should not be confused with the
Irish Football Association (IFA), which is the organising body for the sport in
Northern Ireland .
The FAI has an Executive Committee of five unpaid members under the President, as well as a paid administrative staff led by the General Secretary. There is also a General Council of delegates who vote at the AGM. As well as the senior clubs, the General Council includes delegates from a variety of affiliated organisations:
FAI affiliates
- Provincial FAs for Leinster, Munster, Connacht and Ulster (the last only for the 3 Ulster counties not in Northern Ireland).
- Separate Education associations for primary schools, secondary schools, universities, and other third-level institutes
- Junior (i.e. non-League) league football
- Women's FAI
- Referees
- Defence Forces
The structure has been criticized as unnecessarily complicated, promoting turf wars and duplication of effort between different groups and affiliates.Menton, op.cit. pp. 343-4 The : 217K)
The League of Ireland actually predated the FAI by three months. The
FAI Cup was immediately established along the lines of the
FA Cup and
Scottish Cup competitions. A second
Cup Competition was formed in 1974 called the
FAI League Cup . The FAI Junior Cup and
FAI Intermediate Cup are for non-League of Ireland teams. The
Setanta Cup was inaugurated in 2005 as
Cross-border competition between FAI clubs from the League of Ireland and IFA clubs from the
Irish League .
The FAI also organises schools competitions, and international teams, including the senior team, underage teams, and the
Olympic team.
The FAI was formed in September 1921 by the
Football League Of Ireland , founded the previous June, as well as the
Leinster FA and the
Munster FA, which had withdrawn from the IFA in June. This was the climax of a series of disputes about the alleged
Belfast bias of the IFA. The IFA had been founded in 1880 in Belfast as the governing body for football on the island of Ireland, which was then a single part ("
Home Nation ") of the
United Kingdom . All but two clubs in the Irish League were based in what would become Northern Ireland, and never more than four of the eleven players selected for the Ireland team were from outside Ulster. While this largely reflected the balance of footballing strength within Ireland, southern clubs felt the IFA was doing little to promote the game outside the professional clubs in its heartland. Elsewhere soccer was under pressure from the
Gaelic Athletic Association , which banned members from playing or watching soccer as being a "foreign" game.
World War I increased the gulf as the Irish League was suspended and replaced by regional leagues, foreshadowing the ultimate split. The Belfast members were mainly
Unionist , while the Dublin members were largely
Nationalist . Tensions were exacerbated by the
Irish War Of Independence of 1919-21, which disrupted contact between northern and southern clubs and prevented resumption of the Irish League. The security situation prompted the IFA to order the April 1921
Irish Cup semi-final replay between
Glenavon and
Shelbourne to be replayed in Belfast, rather than Dublin as convention dictated. This proved the final straw.
1 Chapter 6: "The game 1914-24: decline and division"
Both bodies initially claimed to represent the entire island. The split between , brokered by the
English FA , almost reached agreement on a federated solution, but the IFA insisted on providing the chairman of the International team selection committee. A 1932 meeting agreed on sharing this role, but foundered when the FAIFS demanded one of the IFA's two places on the
International Football Association Board .
2 pp. 23-5
The IFA did not feel obliged to refrain from selecting Free State players for its international team. The name ''Football Association of Ireland'' was readopted by the FAIFS in 1936, in anticipation of the change of
The State's Name in the pending
Constitution Of Ireland , and the FAI began to select players from Northern Ireland based on
The Constitution's Claim To Sovereignty There .Ryan, op. cit. pg 33 A number of players played for both
The FAI "Ireland" (against FIFA members from mainland Europe) and
The IFA "Ireland" (in the
British Home Championship , whose members had withdrawn from FIFA in 1920).
Players Appearing for Two or More Countries Shortly after the IFA rejoined FIFA in 1946, the FAI stopped selecting Northern players.Ryan, op. cit. pg 50 The IFA stopped selecting southern players after the FAI complained to FIFA in 1950.Ryan, op. cit. pg 61
For many years, soccer was largely confined to Dublin and a few provincial towns. In some towns the game had been started by while others, especially those run by the
Christian Brothers , favoured
Gaelic Games . From the late 1960s, soccer began to achieve more widespread popularity. Minister
Donagh O'Malley began a new program of state-funded schools in 1966, many with soccer pitches and teams. The
Gaelic Athletic Association 's ban on members playing "foreign" games was lifted in 1971.
RTÉ Television , founded in 1962, and
British Television on
Cable from the 1970s, broadcast soccer regularly. Above all, the increasing success of the international side from the late 1980s gave increased television exposure, more fans, and more funds to the FAI.
However, increased media exposure also highlighted some inadequacies of its hitherto largely amateur organisation.
The "Merriongate" controversy broke in 1996 when the media reported that in the , Dublin).
In January 1999, the FAI announced a planned national soccer stadium, to be called
Eircom Park after primary sponsors
Eircom . This was to be a 45,000 seat stadium in
City West , modelled on the
Gelredome in
Arnhem . It gradually became apparent that the initial forecasts of cost and revenue had been very optimistic. FAI and public support for project was also undermined by the announcement of the
National Stadium in
Abbotstown , which would have 65,000 seats and be available free to the FAI, being funded by the state. The Eircom Park project was finally abandoned in March 2001, amid much rancour within the FAI.Menton, op.cit. Chapter 2: "Eircom Park and the National Stadium"
The FAI made a joint bid with the
Scottish FA to host the
2008 European Football Championship . This bid failed. There was some comment in Ireland that the bid involved wishful thinking by the FAI, in that the stadiums proposed for use were Eircom Park (which was cancelled), the National Stadium (which has been indefinitely postponed),
Lansdowne Road (which will be demolished in 2007 and rebuilt by 2009) and
Croke Park (which at the time of the bid was not open for playing soccer).
The FAI was criticised by
Roy Keane after
He Was Sent Home From The World Cup while preparing in
Saipan for the
2002 World Cup . He felt the training facilities were inadequate, the players were being encouraged to take a laid-back approach, and the convenience of the FAI officers was being put before the needs of the players. Others felt Keane's decision to leave was due to lack of enthusiasm and his antipathy towards manager
Mick McCarthy ; public opinion in Ireland was divided. The FAI commissioned a report from consultants Genesis into its World Cup preparations. The "Genesis Report" agreed with many of Keane's criticisms and found the FAI structure was not conducive to good planning. It made a range of recommendations. The complete report was never published for legal reasons.Menton, op.cit. pp 349-50 Brendan Menton resigned as FAI General Secretary at this time, and the media linked the two events,
"FAI chief Menton resigns" BBC Sport, 12 November, 2002 though Menton denied this.Menton, op.cit. pp 349-50
In 2002, the FAI announced a deal with
British Sky Broadcasting to have Ireland's international matches, as well as domestic soccer, televised on its satellite subscription service. The general public felt it should be on
RTÉ , the free-to-air terrestrial service, in spite of their offering much lower rates. Faced with the prospect of the government legislating to prevent any deal, the FAI agreed to accept an improved, but still lower, offer from RTÉ.Menton, op.cit. Chapter 6: "The Sky TV Deal"
Following the respectable performance of the national team in the 2002 World Cup, the team's fortunes have subsequently declined, under the management of
Mick McCarthy and his successors, first
Brian Kerr , and then
Steve Staunton . The FAI has been ascribed some of the blame by some commentators, in relation to any or all of these managers, for appointing him too hastily, or refusing to support him when criticised in the media, or for parting with him too quickly. Others have placed the blame elsewhere, with the managers themselves, or bad luck with injuries, or a simple decline in the quality of the players available.
In September 2006, ,
28 September 2006 as anticipating that
Lansdowne Road in Dublin (actually owned by the
Irish Rugby Football Union ) would stage the
UEFA Cup Final in 2010, and that the FAI and the IFA would co-host the 2011
European Under-21 Championship .
The 2007 season saw the FAI start the new
FAI National League after merging with the
League Of Ireland . There was controversy over the manner in which clubs were allocated between the two divisions of the new League, as simple
Promotion And Relegation from the previous season's leagues was not used, but rather a weighting of results, infrastructure and finances.
