The FAI can trigger a break clause in Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny’s contract before the next international window in October.
Kenny’s deal runs until after the 2024 European Championships in Germany but with Ireland unlikely to qualify, the association may see the value of appointing his successor in the coming weeks.
Following the loss to Greece in Athens on June 16th, and defeats to France in Paris and the Netherlands at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday night, the FAI board of directors can justify cutting ties with the 51-year-old Dubliner.
Chief executive Jonathan Hill will address a multitude of questions swirling around both the men’s and women’s senior managerial positions on Thursday. A long-awaited media briefing from the former commercial director of the English FA was deferred until after the recent international window.
Hill has much to explain. High on the agenda is Kenny’s future employment and the circumstances surrounding the decision not to offer women’s manager Vera Pauw a new contract.
[ Vera Pauw’s unforgivable sin was to stand up for herselfOpens in new window ]
Kenny was promoted three years ago, during the pandemic, ahead of the Euros 2021 play-off against Slovakia.
In November 2018, former FAI chief executive John Delaney appointed Mick McCarthy on a two-year deal with Kenny to take over the Ireland Under-21s. However, the former Dundalk manager also received a written guarantee that he would succeed McCarthy after Euro 2020.
When that tournament was postponed by a year due to Covid, Kenny’s written agreement allowed him to replace McCarthy ahead of that play-off against Slovakia.
Kenny’s team, six of whom featured in this month’s international fixtures, failed to reach the Euros after losing 4-2 to Slovakia in a penalty shoot-out.
There followed a miserable run of results, with Ireland losing 16 of 36 matches on Kenny’s watch, winning 10 but only beating one country ranked above them, the 3-0 win over Scotland in June 2022.
It took 12 games to land a first victory, the 4-1 defeat of Andorra.
Any chance of Kenny guiding his homeland to a major tournament fell away early in each campaign. Each poor result came with the same excuse, as the capping of 20 players was noted while he highlighted the underdevelopment of talent within Irish football.
The prospect of qualification for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar disappeared by losing to Serbia, Luxembourg and Portugal in the first three matches. The same fate befell Ireland during last year’s Nations League, with defeats to Armenia in Yerevan and at home to a second-string Ukraine side.
Kenny put tremendous pressure on his management by proclaiming that they intended to top their second tier Nations League group. They finished third behind Scotland and Ukraine with two wins from six. That left them ranked 27th by Uefa, which damaged chances of reaching a play-off for next year’s Euros.
In the current campaign, qualification for Germany 2024 became next to impossible when Ireland came up short against Ronald Koeman’s Dutch squad in front of 49,807 at the Aviva last Sunday night.
“We do need to find a way to win, we’re absolutely gutted,” said Kenny after the game. “I think the players are faultless in their efforts, they gave absolutely everything. It’s been a massive transitional period.”
The “transitional period” statement forced the obvious question: after three years when Ireland has sunk to 53rd in the world rankings, when will the transition end?
“I’m just saying it has been,” Kenny replied. “I’m not saying it is going forward, but it has been.
“An absolute jilted generation of players! Alan Browne, he’s the only player in that eight-year period who came through the 21s. One player in eight years? I’m after putting 20 in two years through the squad, because that’s what was needed.
“But we are disappointed we have gone out. It’s our intention to qualify, we haven’t qualified, but we have to wait and see if we can get a play-off and take it from there.”
Albania’s 2-0 defeat of Poland on Sunday night makes a play-off in March increasingly unlikely.
The FAI might decide they would be better served by replacing Kenny with a manager who gets a long run-up to the qualification campaign for the 2026 World Cup in North America.
Former Ireland midfielder Lee Carsley has been repeatedly mentioned as a potential successor. That narrative was enhanced by the 49-year-old leading the England under-21s to European glory this summer.
The remaining qualifiers in October, at home to Greece and Gibraltar away, before going to Amsterdam in November and hosting a friendly against New Zealand, would give new management time to familiarise themselves with the squad.
Alternatively, John O’Shea, who was appointed senior assistant coach in February, could take the job on an interim basis.
Whoever gets the job, they will report to director of football Marc Canham. If Hill and Canham need a few months to unearth a new manager, the focus will switch to the controversial process that led to the FAI not renewing Pauw’s contract last month.
Pauw guided Ireland to their first ever women’s World Cup this year but following a series of public controversies, Eileen Gleeson was given the role on a strictly interim basis to prepare Ireland for the historic first female international at the Aviva Stadium, against Northern Ireland on September 23rd.
Earlier this month Pauw accused Hill of reneging on a contract pledge before the tournament. She also stated that Hill interfered in “technical football matters” that undermined her authority with the coaching staff and players.
“People in Ireland need to know what happened,” she told RTÉ. “I asked the CEO to stop engaging with people and he said he had a right to do so.”
