Menton welcomes inquiry

Glasgow-based management consultancy Genesis has been awarded the contract to carry out the FAI's inquiry into its management of the build-up to the World Cup finals.

Maurice O'Connell, a former governor of the Central Bank and David Whitaker, a former coach of the Great Britain hockey team, will be used as consultants and the 23-squad members, including Roy Keane (whose infamous departure from the Irish squad's training base in Saipan was the catalyst for the inquiry), will be invited to make statements.

The company is reported to have already started its work and talked to team manager Mick McCarthy over the course of last weekend. The FAI's general secretary, Brendan Menton, had said in Japan when its officer board took the decision to commission the report that he believed it was unnecessary.

At the time there was considerable speculation that its scrutiny of his role in the pre-World Cup controversy might leave him under pressure from his critics within the association.

Yesterday, however, he expressed his support for the project and said that its scope would include not just the preparations for the finals but also the way the organisation managed the qualifying campaign. "If this can help us to improve the way we do things then I'm in favour of it," remarked Menton. "I don't care whether the suggestions made are the result of criticisms.

"We are hoping that as many people as possible can have an input into the process and we are committed to implementing the recommendations made, although it's not just a question of waiting for this report in order to start changing things.

"I think people should realise that that is an ongoing process for us and that even since the World Cup we have attempted to improve a number of aspects of the way we operate. That is something that will continue."

He added that while he believes the association must be "doing something right" in order for the success enjoyed by its various teams to have been achieved, the hope is that the findings of this inquiry might help to provide a basis for further progress with a return to the top 10 of the world ranking list amongst the objectives that the organisation wishes to achieve over the coming seasons.

Genesis, which has previously worked with a number of major British sports bodies and developed the High Performance Strategy for the Irish Sports Council, was one of three companies to tender for the contract to carry out the investigation. The contract is said to be worth in the region of €30,000 and will also include a study of how fairly similarly sized associations such as the Danish, Swedish and Belgian ones organise and administer their national teams.

An interim report will be delivered next month with the fuller findings set to follow approximately one month later.