DAVID COURELL: 'It is a new chapter for Irish football... ' | Launch of FAI strategy plan | Player pathways and aligned calendar | Israeli fans in Dublin
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Off the Ball Rugby. Like him or loathe him, he's been great for the game. He brings in energy and I couldn't believe it. On Saturday night I came home, my son was wearing all white and he had like tape, like a polycat around his legs. I was like, what's happening here? Join in the obsession.
Subscribe now at offtheball.com forward slash join. David Carell, FAI CEO, we're here at the launch of the FAI strategy plan for 2026 to 2029. Can you just put some maybe meat in the bones for fans, players, volunteers, parents and what that all means?
Sure, yeah. Look, it's very exciting to be launching a new strategy. It's a new chapter for Irish football. We've entitled it Change the Game. The reason being, if we reflect honestly, we have been underperforming as a nation. That's understood by a lot of people, but it's actually the facts as well. UEFA evaluate every federation. within their membership based on the size of their population, how many players they have in their country, how their teams are performing in European club competitions and international competitions, players, coaches, etc. And sadly, Irish football, out of the 55 federations, when you line them all up, is the third most underperforming nation. So something's not been working.
We've been conscious of that for a few years and we've been slowly building towards this new strategy. We recently concluded a transformation programme, which completely changed the shape of how the organisation is set up. We've done that with this strategy in mind. So there's three pillars to the strategy.
What is the new FAI strategy plan for 2026-29?
It involves obviously getting more kids playing. That is the key part, is we want to continue to develop player development. Facility development is the second pillar, which is an ongoing challenge in Ireland, sadly with the weather that we have and the increase in demand. And the third one is around our League of Ireland academies and wanting to, I suppose, realise that really positive intervention by government of the investment that's come forward, but to crystallise that, improve the pathway and improve the fortunes of our international teams by virtue of it.
So just on that, the third most underperforming nation in UEFA, it doesn't sound for positive reading. How do we change that going forward? What is the actual plan to perform at the level that we should be at or outperform the level that Ireland should be at?
Sure. Look, I don't want someone to walk away and have the impression that everything's broken. It's not. There's a lot of positive things happening. Our participation numbers are actually quite high. We've seen huge growth in the women's game, 79% increase in women's and girls registrations over the last three seasons. We've got a volunteer workforce that's hugely committed, really progressive. We've got a lot of the fundamentals in place, but for some reason they weren't clicking. And we as a federation have a part to play in that. So we've tried to make conscious decisions to try and... enable the system to work better. We've developed, as part of the strategy, a view of the ecosystem and how all stakeholders in Irish football have a part to play, be that the association, our affiliates, leagues, clubs, government, and we want to work with everyone to make sure that Irish football comes together, moves in the right direction and lifts all boats ultimately.
In the report, it says 74% of the ambitions were met from the 2022 to 2025 plan. What has constituted a positive increase in that for the next three-year plan?
I've been consistent. We have been committed to providing updates on our strategy progress over the last four years, and every six months we deliver that. And I've been consistent in maintaining that. That's a good score. I am very... Very conscious. It was a hugely ambitious strategy, as is this one. And our resources are not endless. So we need to make difficult decisions and make priorities throughout the four years. But I feel we did well in the last cycle. I hope we can surpass that 74% with this coming one.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:35
2
What is the new FAI strategy plan for 2026-29?
1:35–8:12
3
What are the three pillars of the FAI strategy?
8:12–8:46
4
How does the FAI plan to improve player development?
8:46–13:06
5
How can Irish football overcome its underperformance?
13:06–16:19
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from OTB Football
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