STEPHEN BRADLEY believes the FAI needs to prove it is trustworthy before it can hope to land significant government funding.
Last June, the Association made its case for the state to provide €517million towards its €863 Facilities Investment and Strategy Vision.
There has been little progress in convincing those in power to loosen the purse strings since.
And it was warned by politicians after then chief executive Jonathan Hill’s disastrous appearance before the Public Accounts Committee in February that it was not doing itself any favours.
Its ongoing search for a head coach for the men’s team has done nothing to help its reputation.
Hill stepped down last week with David Courell stepping in on an interim basis.
Courell and Director of Football Marc Canham were both in Tolka Park on Monday night to watch Shamrock Rovers and Shelbourne play out a scoreless draw on an awful pitch.
Bradley knows the fare – shown live on Virgin Media – will have done little to silence the doubters and bemoaned how another country is on the verge of making a game-changing investment in its football infrastructure as things stand still here.
Bradley said: “They did well to make any sort of passing on this. It’s up there with one of the worst I’ve played on.
“You could see the ball as it was moving, bouncing off the sand. I heard they put a few tonne of sand on it during the week but it killed it really.
“You can see players having to take three or four touches to get a pass, it definitely played a massive part in quality of game
“It’s definitely not helped in terms of any sort of spectacle. There’s nothing we can do about it but it’s really poor.
“We’ve all been banging the drum and need to keep banging it. I don’t know the ins and outs with the government, they need to be comfortable handing over money to the right people.
“Kosovo have committed €200m to stadiums. In ten years’ time we’ll be wondering why they’ve gone ahead and we’re still stuck.
“We need investment. Crowds are good. I believe the teams are good. Managers are good. We need help with facilities, everyone across the board.
“Like you see here, this doesn’t help anyone. If you were here for the first time, I don’t think you’d be coming back.
“To be fair to the government, you’ve got to be very comfortable on where you are handing that money to and understand that it’s going to get spent in the right way.
“I understand that. You’ve got to understand their point of view as well. I hope it is because it’s the one thing holding this league back.”