Stephen Kenny is understandably consumed by Greece this week but the ecosystem of Irish football could do with his opinion right about now.
Not about big Giorgos Giakoumakis, nor the imminent loss of Tom Cannon to England, or even goings-on inside the Ireland training camp in the beautiful Calista Luxury Resort on the outskirts of Antalya, Turkey.
Kenny sat down to discuss the structures of Irish football and the knowledge from his lived experience of domestic football for 20 years came spilling out.
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It quickly became clear that Kenny is better positioned to woo the TDs who inhabit the departments of sport, education, health and finance than the FAI executives who are seeking €515 million over 15 years to transform soccer from a sport to industry.
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The League of Ireland has been used as the stick to beat Kenny since he became Ireland manager in 2020. Now it is the reason why he should pitch to Government, alongside FAI chief executive Jonathan Hill, chairman Roy Barrett and Robert Watt.
Kenny has seen the future. For two decades he risked putting “his family in jeopardy” to carve out a living as a coach. He journeyed to Longford Town at age 26, getting the club into the Uefa Cup within three years. He went to Derry City, took a detour to Dunfermline, ate a few sackings at Shamrock Rovers and Bohemians, staying alive long enough to guide Dundalk to the cusp of European respectability.
He even contemplated the Limerick gig because why should hurling and rugby have the run of a city with 100,000 inhabitants?
The secret sauce, Kenny would inform the politicians, is employment. Therein lies the votes.
“You need a full-time industry. It has always been said here that there is not a proper industry, so if somebody loses their job they have nowhere to go. They have to go back to mainstream employment and then, do they come back out of that again? Does the employer want to take a coach back in, knowing that he might go back coaching?
“An industry creates that level of stability, equality if you like.”
Defeat to Greece next Friday night would define his time as Ireland manager. Ideally, Gus Poyet’s side are caught napping by the fact they have already secured a play-off sport for Euro 2024 by dint of winning their Nations League C group.
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Kenny is embracing change, like the arrival of Turkish media magnate Acun Ilıcalı, who last week transformed Shelbourne into a feeder club for Hull City.
“I think any investment in the clubs is positive. Dermot Desmond going into Shamrock Rovers was very influential, and just great for the league and great for Rovers.
“You’ve good owners coming in now at the various clubs and that wasn’t always the case in the League. You had committees, a lot of committees running clubs for a long time and people with good intentions and certainly great people but just maybe didn’t have the financial backing sometimes. So this is new territory for the clubs. It’s interesting because I think there is a pathway.”
That pathway is the Europa Conference League. But proper European football will not be allowed anywhere near Oriel, Dalymount, Tolka or Richmond Park until each stadium is rebuilt.
“It’s brilliant from the FAI’s point of view that everyone who worked on the plan, to have the vision and fortitude and expertise in such a short space of time to put that plan together and actually put it to Government. It’s incredibly ambitious and that’s what you need, that level of ambition.
“The talk about 20,000-seater stadiums in provincial towns or cities, if things like that happen it’s bigger than sport itself. It affects communities in a huge way. It forms the environment of a provincial town or city and clubs get the opportunity to grow if academies are funded in a proper way and it co-exists with education.”
“It’s hard for people in provincial towns,” he continued. “Out of loyalty, they will go to poor grounds that are falling down, for their club. But to go to proper grounds brings the whole family into the equation and can be just a better environment for that.
“I voice my opinion all the time within the FAI but I’m just one person. This plan is not my plan. It’s Jonathan Hill, the technical director [Marc Canham] and all the board members working behind the scenes like Roy Barrett. It has a level of expertise but it has a long way to go.
“The Brexit implications and how that materialises are all big challenges for the FAI and clubs. It’s very hard to develop players. It’s not an industry, there’s no jobs. You have to take risks if you want to work and not many people are willing to take those risks because you put your family in jeopardy.
“It was frustrating because my ambition was to try and get a team into the Champions League. But then that became harder.
“You were just let down by all the stuff around you, you couldn’t attract top players. It was not just a wage, you need an infrastructure. Proper training facilities, proper stadiums. It is very difficult to even attract the best Irish players in the UK who might be dropping down the divisions.
“We trained in Bristol City a few weeks ago. A modern, state-of-the-art training facility with everything from cryotherapy chambers to modern gyms and pitches of the highest quality. It is a proper industry with people working at all levels.”
