FAI Director Of Football John Martin | The new plan for Irish football | Aligned calendar ‘too divisive’
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John Martin, the FAI Director of Football. We're here in the Aviva Stadium and I know you're speaking to the media today about the football development structure within Ireland. One of the words that I've heard today a lot were the need for everyone to be aligned and unity across all departments. Do you mind just telling people how you would like to lead the football side of the structure over the next couple of years?
Yeah, I think... If you looked at the football structure, you can see it's a very large team. And I suppose my whole approach to this is just having experts in each of the roles. And that obviously gives me the comfort. So whether it's women and girls, Lizzie Kent or Niall O'Regan in education. as well as obviously Carla and Hamer in the senior international roles. What I want to have in place is expert leaders, all of us working towards a common goal. I think the communication piece is really important. Having a football leadership team that sits and works together, having a strategy that binds us all in and makes sure we're all working towards the same thing. I think I have that. I think I have an exceptionally strong team, really talented people.
Well, they haven't said otherwise. I think everyone's on the same page as me in terms of the direction of travel here. So far, really positive, but a lot of work to do as well.
I suppose you speak about a lot of work to do. One of the first things we saw today was the state of football in Ireland and the FAI 20 years ago compared to now. And maybe the lack of structures in place for specifically women probably involved and girls in the FAI system. Do you mind just explaining to people basically how it's going to be set up over the next couple of years? Because you know it's going to be vastly different to what we've seen before for young girls and women in Ireland.
Yeah, I think some of it's organic in terms of the participation piece, which is good. So I think coming into the role, I figured I didn't have a participation problem. But again, you still want more.
What is the vision for the future of Irish football?
There's a huge number of girls playing football and starting, but even from a starting point, they're still in Dublin. I know it's probably still three or four to one, seven, eight, nine years of age as well. So I think there's a lot of work to be done in terms of actually just changing the culture across the games, making sure that actually... It is genuine the same for boys and girls. It's the same pathway for boys and girls. And that comes from the work we do, that comes from what the clubs do, that comes from what the league does. But for us, like I mentioned earlier, there is a generational deficit in women's football in Ireland, probably women's sport, let's be truthful. So we're hoping to address some of that like we for the first time.
Sorry, not for the first time, but the structure we have now in terms of women and girls like Lizzie's predecessors probably didn't have a team around them over the last few years. But for Lizzie Kent to come in now and have five full time concentrated staff just in the women and girls space can only be a positive can only be a good thing and again it's driving standards it's raising awareness it's player coach development all of those good things in the female space and I think we're starting to make some inroads there but lots lots lots to do
So you've Lizzie basically at the top of the women's and girls unit and then she's five staff below her?
Yes, and they'll be sort of deployed regionally as well so if you're in Munster and you want to speak to us about developing a girls strategy within the club then we've an expert that can go in and work with you and develop that and that can be from
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