SOCCER:Steve Staunton failed in his attempt to persuade members of the FAI Board of Management to allow him to continue in his job as Ireland manager last night.

A statement issued in the early hours of the morning said it had been agreed by mutual consent to terminate his four-year contract after 21 months in the job. In the statement, FAI president David Bloood thanked Staunton and his management team "for their dedication and commitment to the senior team since their appointment in January 2006".

A meeting called by the board of management to consider Staunton's position continued past midnight. The Louthman, who had already told his backroom staff he expected to lose his job, met with the association's 10 most senior officials for around half an hour at tea-time yesterday. It is believed that Staunton, who is well liked among FAI officials, sought to make a case for being given more time after which he talked by phone with members of his management team.

The board members then moved to another venue to consider their decision. The duration of their subsequent discussions suggested that the matter had, at least, not been entirely straightforward. The matter of compensation is not thought to have been an issue with Staunton's contract apparently quite clear on the terms of any severance package. The manager, it is believed, would do well out of the deal with the remainder of his two year's salary likely to be paid up in full.

There was also a suggestion that members of his backroom staff had also been given four-year deals and that the total cost of dispensing with their services could approach €2million.

Another question that may have been raised is who would take charge of the team for next month's European Championship qualifier in Cardiff. With Ireland B team manager Pat Devlin and coach Kevin MacDonald most likely out of the reckoning, there are few obvious candidates for the caretaker role.

The Irish under-21s will be in Montenegro for a qualifying game which is likely to remain Don Givens' priority although his assistant Paul Clement could take charge for that game. Packie Bonner is another possibility but there were strong suggestions yesterday that he will not take over for the game.

Discussing the situation on Newstalk ahead of any decision last night, Staunton's predecessor Brian Kerr was severely critical of the role played by the entire FAI leadership in the affair.

"They do their business in mysterious ways, it's smoke and mirrors stuff and it's hard to give them any credit," he said. "They have been found out big time on this one."

He said that it was "sad" that decisions of such importance were being made by people who "basically, have no knowledge of the game". He went on to argue that "the so-called three wise men: Michael Cody, John Delaney and David Blood should have no part in the selection process this time around."

In relation to Delaney specifically, he suggested that the association's chief executive had been "unsupportive" of Kerr's attempts to improve the organisation of the game at grass roots level.

Staunton may find himself harbouring equally strong feelings towards a man who had said in the days after his appointment just 21 months ago that, "Stephen has a four-year contract and I guarantee that he will see it through".

The search for Staunton's replacement will now get under way, with the association likely to look for rather more experienced candidates this time around. Before Staunton was appointed at the start of last year, there were countless people linked with the job without any serious prospect of being appointed.

The association set out to hire Martin O'Neill, who quickly made it known that he wasn't interested, but a number of serious candidates did express an interest in the job including Arie Haan, Philippe Troussier and Claudio Ranieri. Most were never even contacted as the association's three-man selection committee settled on the strategy of finding a young and inspirational character who could restore passion to a team that waswidely felt to have lacked during Brian Kerr's reign.

At the outset, Delaney had dug a rather large hole for himself with the commitment to find a "top class" manager, the sort of rash promise he is likely to avoid this time out. Having taken a good deal of the blame for the events of the past 21 months, he may opt to take a back seat and publicly leave the process to others on this occasion. Even then, it is hard to imagine that anybody could be recruited without his approval.

Of the candidates to emerge so far Paul Jewell ticks most of the boxes required to be an early frontrunner thanks to being reasonably affordable and currently out of work. Other candidates to feature in the first wave of fairly idle speculation included Roy Hodgson, Terry Venables and Graeme Souness.

The first thing likely to attract attention over the coming days is the manner in which the FAI suggest they intend to carry out the search. The way in which association went about things last time around was widely criticised and there is likely to be an outcry if the organisation's leading administrators seek to take on the task again with outside assistance.

Some sort of advisor would appear to be the most obvious way forward if only because, as other consultants' reports have done in the past, it gives those who make the decisions in Merrion Square a measure of justification for the decisions they arrive at. The credibility of the process on this occasion may, however, come in for more scrutiny.