FAI shambles

bmcgov86

right guys,

Ive never really ever been a fan of the FAI and i was talking to my neighbour the other day and his story has given me yet another reason to think the organisation is a shambles.

my neighbour plays for ireland at under-age and they were over in portugal about 2 weeks ago for a tournament. he informed me that not once did they have a training session and they used to play different tactics/players in each game. turns out they got thumped. the manager came out in the papers and according to what they say he gave the message that: 'we have no great players on this team, no one that can change a match' or something along those lines.

the players were very unhappy at how things were being run, after all all of these players have been over on trial or have signed for teams in britain and now how well those clubs are organised.

i was told that there were 11 FAI staff on the trip yet my neighbour said they did absolutely nothing and were literally just there for the holiday.

when returning home at the airport in portugal they were all made give their gear back and my neighbour told me the spanish team(who were all dressed up in suits) were laughing at them. he said they all felt very embarrased and felt lik ethe laughing stock of the tournament.

other players my neighbour had talked to told him that their country had a designated chef etc but the irish lads had nothing.

no player dared make a complaint, as this would probably mean they didnt get a game or whatever.

if this is how our young lads get treated it cant be good for the future in my opinion.

eagle eye

This is absolutely disgraceful if true. I would not be in the least bit surprised of it was tbh.

Awaits Des' reply...........

SectionF

Appalling.

stovelid

God.

Although if that's the way they've treated the senior squad in the past, god knows what else they foist on the under-age teams.

monkey9

This thread should be sent to the FAI for confirmation and explanation. Forget the media and papers etc, let Boards.ie get an investigation going!!!!

CHD

Can we have a FAI bashing superthread?

Highsider

Monkey's everyone of them. Not surprised in the slightest

dogpile

Poor ickle lambs couldn't "rough" it a bit..no head chef? scandalous (aren't they aware of the recession :rolleyes:) ..still they'll soon get used to the pampared life should any of them make it at their English clubs, and that's a big if going by the law of averages

eirebhoy

bmcgov86 wrote: »

my neighbour plays for ireland at under-age and they were over in portugal about 2 weeks ago for a tournament. he informed me that not once did they have a training session

That's too difficult to believe.

Vincent Butler is the manager btw.

~Rebel~

dogpile wrote: »

Poor ickle lambs couldn't "rough" it a bit..no head chef? scandalous (aren't they aware of the recession :rolleyes:) ..still they'll soon get used to the pampared life should any of them make it at their English clubs, and that's a big if going by the law of averages

A chef is one thing, but not allowing the young fellas to keep their gear? or not having any training sessions or tactics to work on how they might go about, i dunno, challenging for a tournement?

Always been an unprofessional setup, doesn't seem to have changed.

Any chance Kerr could be brought back to take over all underage football?

bmcgov86

eirebhoy wrote: »

That's too difficult to believe.

i'm just going by what he told me, specifically what he made very clear to me.

eirebhoy

~Rebel~ wrote: »

Any chance Kerr could be brought back to take over all underage football?

Butler has been managing the U16s since '96 when Kerr was there.

Craft25

Can you think of any irish players that should be playing for us but who arent?? :rolleyes: Maybe they had the courage to question things at youth level when they were there? I wouldn't put it past that shower!

~Rebel~

eirebhoy wrote: »

Butler has been managing the U16s since '96 when Kerr was there.

fair enough. Would still love him back in the system though, always seemed like he had a real professional attitude to the game.

Third_Echelon

Absolutely disgraceful.... the FAI when it comes to running the national team affairs truly are idiots.... when will they learn!

The Volt

At the end of the day the FAI is a professional organisation being run by amateurs, it's been that way for years and years, no sign of it changing

(any chance of another MCDer on this one?) =/

JimiTime

Our whole country seems to be run on a nod and a wink, jobs for the boys, take what you can get mentality. They say you can tell a restaurants kitchen cleanliness, by the cleanliness of its toilets. I think we can tell the professionalism of the FAI from the way its grassroots football is run. Its an absolute shambles!

Savman

The FAI are operating in apparent paradox. The only way to get the message across is for a complete boycott right across the board, but the country will never (fully) turn it's back on the national team(s) so they get away with carrying on regardless. Vicious circle tbh.

Hard Worker

I think Vinny Butler may have retired recently.
I was at the under 15 tournament last month in Lissywoolen and the set up seemed very professional. There was no question of the players handing back gear as I saw some of them give socks and other bits to kids outside. One or two gave away jerseys.
Can't understand that story from Portugal. Very unusual not to have training sessions.

Dante

Any chance Kerr could be brought back to take over all underage football?

After how he was treated by the FAI I would doubt it....

Vokes

Whats the story with management appointments in the underage teams? Do they get longer contracts than the senior manager, Trap (he has 4years?) or are they rolling contracts ? Does Trap or Tardelli get to have any input into the underage coaching or U21 coaching?

Handsome Bob

What a disgrace if true. Making the boys look like the paupers and laughing stock of the tournament, no training sessions and constant changes tactically, staff not lifting a finger, while passing the buck onto the players for poor performance. Embarassing.

rovingrover

I think you need to be careful with the facts before jumping to conclusions. It's funny the numbe rof players who get dropped that comp-lain about a club's organisation and manager's tactics and training.

I've seen a number of underage games in recent years.

Vinny Butler did not appear to be himself at a recent home game and I thought he may have lost interest just before his retirement. With 3 matches on top of each other though there may not have been a need for training sessions.

Players are normally allowed keep their gear.

The organisation of these game sis normally first class. Indeed many Northern Ireland youngsters have cited much better organisation as reason for joining the FAI sides.

Only one blazer normaly goes on these trips. there is no way there were 11 at that tournament.

I doubt if most u16 teams have their own chef.

We play approx 100 Internationals a year at all levels. This is very expensive.

Hard Worker

The number of internationals per year is approx 200 at all levels. I don't know about 11 officials on a trip at underage level, however, you would have a manager, assistant manager, coach, goalkeeper coach, doctor, physio, kit man and one official looking after logistics etc. That's 8, and that would be a minimum requirement. Anything less would be insufficient. Maybe they are part of the 11 that the storyteller mentioned.

djpbarry

I find that story extremely difficult to believe. Sounds like a player with a chip on his shoulder attempting to tarnish reputations. Pretty childish really.