THE FAI has apologised for its failure to appoint an Ireland head coach by now.
And Director of Football Marc Canham has revealed the Association wants John O’Shea to take interim charge again in June.
A permanent appointment would then be made ahead of a daunting Nations League opener against England in September – 10 months after Stephen Kenny’s reign ended.
The FAI had spoken of its desire to have someone in charge by February, Canham then said someone would be unveiled in early April before sources indicated that would happen this week.
It did not and the impression given that the FAI had someone lined up was clearly misleading, prompting Canham to take part in an in-house interview to try to explain what has happened with a process which has come in for heavy criticism from former Ireland players such as Damien Duff, Kevin Kilbane and James McClean.
Canham said: “The update today is that the process is not concluded and will remain ongoing. We recognise and realise that this is not the news that people wanted to hear today and that may be disappointed to hear.
“We’re absolutely committed and determined to find the best person for the men’s national team and men’s football and that will continue to be our aim.”
Asked why there had been a delay, Canham said: “A number of reasons, in terms of why that’s the case, one is around the criteria that we’re looking for.
“In terms of the type of coach, the head coach will be clearly one who comes in and improves the team and makes us competitive.
“We want a coach that has a good mix of club and international experience, and we are very clear on the vision we want to achieve.
“The second point is around conditions, we spoke to a number of coaches who are available but also with contractual arrangements that were already existing and the third point is around the competitiveness of the market.
“We are looking for the right coach who is the right fit with the right timing for that person and for us.
“All those reasons just meant we were not able to conclude process at this point and we’ll continue to search to try and find the best person for the job.
“Realistically we are looking towards the UEFA Nations League with our first game against England in September, that’s what we are aiming to do.
“We recognise the timelines and deadlines we’ve previously set created a sense of expectation and potentially confusion for everyone.
“In hindsight, we would maybe not set those deadlines if we were to do this again, and absolutely commit to trying to find the best person and take as long as that should take. That’s our aim.
“We recognise and apologise for that but we are also confident that ultimately this process will result in us finding the best person for the job.
“So we will continue with the process. I will be working with our FAI president Paul Cooke, our independent board member Packie Bonner and David Courell from a senior leadership perspective, and will continue to do that over the course of the next few months, working towards our aim of having a permanent head coach in place for the September games.”
FAN-DAMONIUM
Asked if he understood fans’ frustration, Canham said: “Absolutely. We recognise that and accept that. We understand we had a massive responsibility to appoint the right person.
“That’s why we are taking our time and not rushing into making an appointment just because there’s a need to. We want to make sure we get that person in place but we do recognise the frustration people will have around that
“The expectation for the two June friendlies now is that we will have an interim head coach whilst we continue the search for a permanent head coach for September.
“We would like that to be John O’Shea, we are very pleased with what he did in March friendlies and we are talking to him at the moment and hope to be able to confirm that as soon as possible.”
SunSport revealed in March that Willy Sagnol was in the frame with his Georgia side going on to unexpectedly qualify for Euro 2024 with a penalty shootout win over Greece.
We also reported that the Association would make a fresh approach for Anthony Barry and that Chris Hughton had come back into the equation with dialogues continuing with a number of candidates, long after others such as Neil Lennon and Chris Coleman had been ruled out.
Canham said: “We understand the speculation, it’s football, football is a brilliant game, everyone has a view on that, the speculation so far shows how much people care and the fans and everyone who has been talking and speculating about who it can be
“The second point is around the confidentiality and the fact that we have kept the process confidential deliberately to make sure there is respect to the process but also respect to the candidates.
“We understand that with that, that creates a vacuum in terms of understanding what’s going on. It’s natural there’ll be speculation, but we are absolutely committed to making sure we keep it confidential, because we believe that’s the right thing to do.”
Asked if he had a message to supporters, Canham said: “We understand there’ll be some short-term frustration or anxiety about the fact that we’ve not made an appointment to date.
“But we believe we are doing the right things moving forward and for the fans to hopefully trust the process that we will find the best person not only to help our men’s national team in the short and long term, but will also help drive the development of football in Ireland for the future.
“We have many great memories of our men’s national team competing at major tournaments and that’s what we want in the future, and that’s why we are taking our absolute time and doing our very best and are determined to find the best person to make sure we have future memories of that, of qualifying for major tournaments.”
