The Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, is right: the shenanigans at the Football Association of Ireland would make a great movie. But this would be tragedy, rather than comedy, with a strong element of farce - thrown in for good measure. It is a strange kind of tale: there are no heroes and - with the exception of the ticket tout known as `George the Greek' - probably no real villains. The leading actors are a hapless group of football administrators whose passionate love for the game could not conceal the awkward truth: they were unable to run a multi million pound business with the requisite level of control and management.
It may be a harsh judgment but, on balance, the removal of Mr Louis Kilcoyne from his position as president of the FAI is in the best interests of Irish: soccer. Mr Kilcoyne does not appear to have been personally indicted in the report on the FAI's financial affairs prepared by the accountants Bastow Charleton. But he must as president take responsibility for the maladminstration and the chaotic financial control laid bare in the report.
The accountants underline how reasonable control procedures were abandoned as FAI officials scurried for World Cup tickets. No effective supervision was exercised on the former honorary treasurer, Mr Joe Delaney, who was apparently allowed to run a major business like the FAI as if it were a small family grocery. It is not enough for Mr Kilcoyne to protest that he did not know or was not told about the missing money and the secret deals. Mr Kilcoyne was president of the organisation and the buck stopped on his desk.
Mr Kilcoyne's extraordinary statement that Mick McCarthy was not his first choice as Irish team manager, on the very day that McCarthy was appointed, also warrants his resignation. It is not enough to say that Mr Kilcoyne gave a straight answer to a direct question: as president of the FAI Mr Kilcoyne had a responsibility to ensure that all his actions served the interests of football in this country. He has still to explain how his loose talk will help to inspire the confidence of the Irish team or, for that matter, the Irish public, in the new manager.
But it will take more than the removal of Mr Kilcoyne to clean up the mess in Merrion Square. Far too much power still resides with amateur officials, who though well intentioned, are hardly up to the task of running a large scale business like the FAI. The case for a radical overhaul of the FAI's archaic structure of council and committees in which the real power would pass to professional managers is compelling.
Whether the FAI now has the capacity to re invent itself in this way must be open to doubt. Many of the key personnel who bear some responsibility for the present shambles are still in situ while others jealously guard their perks and privileges. The hope must be that the recommendations of the Bastow Charleton report will act as an imperative for radical change. Otherwise, the bloodletting of recent months will have been in vain.