{"id":25767,"date":"2025-08-27T04:48:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T04:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/25767\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T04:48:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T04:48:10","slug":"fai-to-hold-town-hall-meeting-against-backdrop-of-redundancy-fears-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/25767\/","title":{"rendered":"FAI to hold \u2018town hall\u2019 meeting against backdrop of redundancy fears \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following a meeting of the FAI<\/a> board of directors on Tuesday to discuss potential staff redundancies, a town hall gathering will be held in the association\u2019s Abbotstown headquarters.<\/p>\n

FAI chief executive David Courell<\/a> is due to address the concerns of 230 employees on Wednesday morning. It comes after Siptu called for the Minister for Sport, Patrick O\u2019Donovan<\/a>, to \u201curgently intervene\u201d to avoid job losses.<\/p>\n

\u201cMinister O\u2019Donovan must act now and guarantee that grassroots football and the staff who sustain it are not sacrificed in the name of short-term change,\u201d said Siptu<\/a> spokesman Robbie Purfield.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout a clear commitment to protecting jobs and community development, the very foundations of the game are at risk. Football cannot be rebuilt from the top down, it must be supported from the ground up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The association continues to manage a debt of \u20ac40 million, which has been reduced from \u20ac70 million in 2019 after a Government bailout.<\/p>\n

The FAI employed 250 earlier this year before recent staff departures reduced that figure to around 230. <\/b><\/p>\n

Alongside potential redundancies across all sectors of the game, there are ongoing concerns among FAI staff over unfilled positions. <\/p>\n

In July, FAI vice-president John Finnegan stepped down citing personal and family reasons while Derry Coughlan, the legal and governance director, resigned after four years with the association. <\/p>\n

Dan McCormack, the finance director since June 2023, is leaving to become Leinster Rugby\u2019s chief financial officer in November.<\/p>\n

The chief football officer post has been vacant since Marc Canham returned home to England this summer<\/a>. Canham\u2019s number two, Shane Robinson, was named as interim technical director and the former Shamrock Rovers academy lead is believed to have applied for the position on a permanent basis.<\/p>\n

\"RepublicRepublic of Ireland under-17s coach Colin O’Brien (centre) is greeted by FAI CEO David Courell and FAI interim technical director Shane Robinson (right). Photograph: Stephen McCarthy\/Sportsfile <\/p>\n

John Morling \u2013 who was the initial favourite to lead Irish football until Canham\u2019s appointment in 2022 \u2013 and former Shamrock Rovers CEO John Martin are also believed to be under consideration.<\/p>\n

Morling previously worked with the FAI during Brian Kerr\u2019s time in charge of Ireland\u2019s international youth teams. Following 10 years running the Brighton and Hove Albion academy, he was appointed alongside Canham as a consultant until March 2023. Morling is currently technical director for the Hong Kong football association.<\/p>\n

The FAI also intend to hire a new head of women\u2019s and girls\u2019 football as Hannah Dingley left in May after 12 months in the role to become head of the Manchester City girls\u2019 academy. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no money,\u201d said Dingley in March when asked about the budget for her newly launched action plan for women\u2019s football.<\/p>\n

Courell previously confirmed that funding constraints led to the end of weekly sessions for home-based female players that had provided a vital link between the amateur and professional game.<\/p>\n

Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson, the Republic of Ireland men\u2019s manager, was asked at the squad announcement ahead of next month\u2019s World Cup qualifiers about a growing concern among FAI staff and how a return to major tournament football is so important in financial terms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever the situation is there, I\u2019m really happy that the board do not include me in all of those thoughts,\u201d said Hallgr\u00edmsson. \u201cThey just allow me to focus on the team and the campaign, but it\u2019s always going to mean a lot if we qualify for the World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe financial thing is leading up to 2028, until the Euros are hosted here, so the financial plan is really well structured to pay down the debt until 2028.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we qualify [for the 2026 World Cup] it\u2019s going to change everything, so we can do more for the youth teams, for the League of Ireland, to free up money to invest in infrastructure. It\u2019s going to change a lot financially. And mentally, it\u2019s going to bring joy to everyone, not only the FAI.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following a meeting of the FAI board of directors on Tuesday to discuss potential staff redundancies, a town…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[18,21278,19,17,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-25767","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-football-association-of-ireland-fai","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}