Since 2002, the FAI have been selling TV rights to Sky Sports – and for every euro increase in cash, falls in multiples the eyeballs of the nation. Paid-for sports TV is one of the few examples of the limitations of Competition Law. More competition generally means better consumer choice, and value. Not in paid-for sports TV. Every year households are paying more for less, and for a sport that positions itself as a working class one in Ireland, this practice is phenomenally “off-brand”. Elite football in England has alienated the working class households, both in attendance, and at home, we simply cannot afford to follow and risk losing the eyeballs of our youth. Even if it means more of the likes of Dunphy, let’s hope common sense prevails here soon. Content, as they say, “is king” – let’s not continue to make it a luxury to watch the boys in green.

With falling attendances (and many of those that do attend, are doing so for free), and lack of real grade-a games this year, the 2018 books for the FAI are set to be far from eye watering. And with the renewed declaration from Delaney to be debt free by 2020, extra strain is landing on the current revenue streams. As pointed out by Emmet Malone, this means that the FAI will be doing their utmost to call in renewals on deals early, so that they can receive upfront sign-ons – revenue that will ultimately come from the back-end of the deal. This means further injection of cash now, but the longer play here is that a) many of these deals will now go up into the mid 2020’s, and b) there’ll be very little leverage in the renegotiation due to an inability to bring a meaningful tendering process into play. So, whilst the FAI may reach that goal of being debt free, it’s purely a reputational optics play by Delaney if done in this manner. The promise that we can then reinvest every Euro into the game come 2020, is not true (we’ll have already accounted for much of the 2020/2021, etc. revenue), plus, the growth you’d achieve in by negotiating these deals at the right time, would likely make up for any interest repayments we’re offsetting in the short term. Again, a net-even. Probably, at best.

And, finally, betting - a serious bug-bearer for many fans. It’s a disease that cripples large parts of our society, and the money the FAI are taking in here is being paid out tenfold by fans, a vast majority of whom can’t afford the losses, or addiction, that this cancer so often brings. God-forbid we suggest following the GAA or FA in anything – but this is one where they have both led honourably and with the front foot. In August of this year, Aaron Rogan wrote in the Times that the FAI were to drop Ladbrokes and the whole betting market, but subsequent reports suggested they were just open to ‘the debate’.

Leave the money at the door. End it now.

7) Player Welfare Officers:

Despite the introduction of national underage leagues, we are still exporting teenagers by the boatload every year. Over 90% of these kids do not get a second contract at the clubs who sign them.

A very large amount of them return to Ireland, as “damaged goods”, psychologically traumatised by the experience and the sense of failure. At least the national underage leagues should reduce the large amount of the returned players that even fall through the cracks of the League of Ireland.

Their reasons for not ‘succeeding’ are often not related to their abilities as footballers. Ill-equipped with the life skills to survive the rat-race that is English football. Loneliness and too much time and money on their young hands, they often fall into unhealthy patterns of behaviour.

Our traditional laissez-faire approach is one of the least efficient approaches possible in terms of developing national team players.

Employing Player Welfare Officers (who deal with the human, not the footballer) both at home - to prepare these players mentally for the challenge ahead, and abroad – to constantly check on their well-being, could go a huge way to improving the success rate of our young talent.

These are our footballing assets; we simply cannot afford to continue haemorrhaging potential international players for non-footballing reasons.

8) The Role of Government:

With leverage, comes power – and as Chief Executive of the FAI, John Delaney has both. But, unlike many CEO’s of private organisations, Delaney’s power is derived from a – largely - different form of leverage. Leverage that he, and his board, gain from being the central figure and – often decision maker – of how government funds and grants are distributed. Looking at the finances over the years, the FAI have been on the receiving end of monies from Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Children and Youth Affairs, Department of the Environment, Irish Sports Council, National Lottery under the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport – some one-off type funding from the Minister of State for Sport, and of course, all accompanied by UEFA and FIFA funds. These numbers, one can only say, dwarf what the FAI push down from profits derived from their own business operations (i.e. where any other normal CEO would gain his leverage and political capital) – much of which continues to just feed the debt that was derived from the Aviva Stadium and Delaney’s embarrassing Vantage Ticket escapade.