Brian Kerr revealed that he rejected a recent approach from the FAI to bring the former Ireland manager "back into the football family".
Following a brief conversation with Noel Mooney at Richmond Park during St Patrick's Athletic's Europa League clash with Norrkoping, the FAI interim general manager continued the conversation via email, where he suggested that there could be a future role for Kerr within the association as a media watchdog.
Kerr told the former Shamrock Rovers goalkeeper that it sounded like something from the Soviet era and duly ended the communication.
"From his seat three rows back from me at a St Patrick's Athletic game, Noel said he was disappointed that I wasn’t going to the presentations by Niall Quinn and Kieran Lucid to League of Ireland clubs," said Kerr, speaking at a Virgin Media event .
"I said I wasn’t available."
"To be honest, then I got two emails off him that were just baffling. When I got the second one, I asked him not to contact me anymore. It was off the wall stuff.
"He suggested I may have a role being a media watchdog in the future for the FAI.
"I actually replied to him by saying I don't understand what a media watchdog is but it sounds like something from the Soviet era and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t contact me anymore in relation to the FAI.
"I don’t really care if it’s public or private but he suggested that Gerry Adams and Ian Paisley had found common ground so maybe myself . . . "
The FAI responded by saying: "The FAI can confirm that General Manager Noel Mooney recently made contact with Brian Kerr – after they had met briefly at a League of Ireland game – in an effort to bring Brian back into the football family.
"The GM contacted Brian, by a private email, offering to meet for a coffee to 'understand your views on how Irish football can perform better'. We are disappointed that these private emails have made their way into the public domain.
"However, the Association is receptive to Brian Kerr being involved in its key objective of the promotion and development of football in Ireland."
