The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) is formulating a defence against allegations of gender discrimination by former Republic of Ireland head coach Eileen Gleeson.
“We are preparing a very robust defence and it will be submitted in the coming weeks,” said FAI chief executive David Courell during a media briefing on Friday afternoon.
Gleeson continues to work in the association’s Abbotstown headquarters in a newly-created role as the head of football strategic insights and planning.
In January, the 53-year-old was replaced as Ireland coach by former Aston Villa manager Carla Ward following Ireland’s failure to qualify for Euro 2025.
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“Right now Eileen is working on a multi disciplinary sports venue project with other sporting bodies in this country, [that includes] major sporting bodies,” Courell revealed.
He stood over the wording of an FAI statement released on August 31st, when they “refuted” claims made in the Sunday Independent which detailed Gleeson’s case against the association.
When it was highlighted that ‘refute’ means to disprove by argument or evidence, Courell said, “Yes, I stand by the word” before adding: “Sorry, if the exact definition of refute implies that they are proven, well, I’ll need to get my dictionary out to make sure I gave you the correct answer on that.
“We will be mounting a robust defence which in itself implies no adjudication has been arrived at in this situation, so that defence will make it clear that we have a different perspective on things.”
When it was suggested that the FAI is repeating the same mistakes with the women’s game that were made with the men’s game in the 1990s and early 2000s, Courell noted that registered female players have increased by 44 per cent since Ireland qualified for the 2023 World Cup.
Courell also revealed that Sally Horrox, World Rugby’s chief of women’s rugby, remains the chairperson of the FAI’s women’s football strategic committee.
“The women’s game absolutely features in our academy [funding] conversations,” he said Courell, adding that a specific committee will be formed to focus on the development of League of Ireland academies for female players.
“The existing women’s football strategic committee is not a formal committee, it’s a working group [chaired by Horrox], and [the new committee] will be a cross-section of different representatives.
Courell also said the request to Government for academy funding will be “refined” from the initial ask of €8 million annually.
On Heimir Hallgrímsson’s position as manager of the Ireland men’s team, following a disastrous loss in Armenia on Tuesday that significantly lessens their chances of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup, Courell provided complete support for the Icelander.
“We are behind Heimir and he will remain in charge for the remainder of the campaign.”
On the budgetary constraints denying Hallgrímsson’s squad access to a sports psychologist, he leaned into the FAI’s €40 million debt.
“We do have financial constraints that we do need to contend with. So, it makes these decisions that bit more challenging.”
If Hallgrímsson’s contract is not renewed in November, or in the unlikely event of Ireland reaching a World Cup playoff in March or the tournament next summer, Courell was asked about a possible conflict of interest between recruiting Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley due to his previous working relationships with recent FAI appointees. The new director of football John Martin and technical director Shane Robinson both previously worked with Bradley at Rovers.
“Stephen’s done a phenomenal job,” said Courell. “There’s no two ways about that, both domestically and internationally, and he’s consistently performed well with Shamrock Rovers.
“In terms of the personalities involved, if I’m entirely honest, it never even entered my thoughts. I don’t have any of that background that you’re referencing, and it wasn’t even a factor in any appointments that we made, and wouldn’t be, quite frankly, moving forward.”
Courell added that Martin will need to push the implementation of an aligned calendar from January to December despite the FAI board’s recent decision to allow regional leagues to be exempt from making fixture changes until 2027.
“It is our north star,” he said, “whoever comes in has to be willing to support that.”
On the voluntary redundancy programme that was formally introduced in Abbotstown last Wednesday, Courell contested a Siptu statement that branded the lack of information around how many members of the association’s staff will be let go as “unprecedented”.
“That is completely inaccurate,” he said. “Many organisations go into voluntary redundancy programmes without explicit targets. Siptu themselves have been calling for redundancies for 12 months. We are delivering on one of the aspects they are looking for.
“What we are undertaking is a transformational programme. I wouldn’t categorise it as a redundancy programme.
“The transformational programme is trying to achieve three things: strategic alignment, cultural progress and financial sustainability.
“We are trying to respectful of staff as we can be.”
The FAI is working with consultants CAA-Portas for a “second opinion” during the redundancy process. In May, CAA Sports, a division of Creative Artists Agency, led by its president Matthew O’Donohue, acquired Portas and its offices in London, Riyadh, Dubai and Singapore.
“Currently, 27 per cent of our annual spend is on headcount,” Courell added. “The European average is 17 per cent.”
