Marc Canham unveiled his Football Pathways Plan at the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday afternoon, a comprehensive and slick document born after 11,000 hours of consultation with stakeholders across all levels of the game.
Canham is keen to flip around the idea of football being in competition with other sports, chiefly Gaelic games. Rather, he sees potential to harness that tapestry, using it to broaden the sporting development of aspiring footballers up until their teenage years. Only then would they be encouraged to fully focus on one discipline.
Thus there's a willingness to move away from the old August-May season at grassroots level and instead play across a full calendar year.
For kids aged 5 to 11, that year would be broken into four three-month blocks: January-March [futsal followed by the start of the league season]; April-June [league season]; July-September [blitzes, mini leagues and football camps]; October-December [mini leagues and futsal].
The Pathways Plan has endured criticism from within the football community, with many citing the impact family summer holidays will have on playing numbers, and others claiming there's an over-emphasis on the more talented players, who will generally be more committed to training/playing year-round.
Former Republic of Ireland international, chairman of a youth club, Kevin Doyle told RTÉ Sport that his children played Gaelic games in the summer and that he feared many kids in rural clubs would stop playing soccer if there is a clash.
There's also the small matter of improving pitches that are ill equipped to deal with heavy rainfall, not to mention the availability of indoor halls to accommodate futsal.
But no matter what way you shake things down, there's no silver bullet here. Anyone with a modicum of involvement in the game in this country will recognise how heart-sinking it is to see rain clouds on a weather forecast as the weekend looms. Bad weather equals no games for a large proportion of grassroots clubs, with only those lucky enough to own 4G pitches insulated from going weeks on end without matches.
In their strategic analysis and vision for the next 15 years - published last June - the FAI said it would require €426m to improve the health of the grassroots game with new pitches, upgrades to existing pitches, new and upgraded clubhouses and more multi-sport, community-focused facilities.
To help realise its Football Pathways plan, they say investment primarily needs to come from the association itself, football stakeholders [FIFA, UEFA], the government, and private investors.
More all-weather facilities would clearly enable their vision of year-round football, but a European Union ban on the use of microplastic rubber crumb infills in artificial grass pitches is a potential complication that could slow things down in that regard. The ban will have an eight-year transition period, coming into force from September 2031. Under the ruling, the approximately 2,500 all-weather pitches in Ireland would all have to resurfaced in seven years' time.
"We're trying to think about the game as a collective as opposed to a hierarchy."
That's just one of several potential stumbling blocks lying in wait, though Canham did stress that certain aspects of the Pathways Plan can be done without major investment - better organisation, a clear structure and an adherence to the same rules across the board.
"I think a lack of a clear vision for football development for some time means that we have essentially been pulling different directions, or a lack of alignment," he said.
"We're trying to think about the game as a collective as opposed to a hierarchy."
In England, Dorking Wanderers are currently making waves, having achieved 12 promotions in 23 seasons. They've risen from the depths of non-league Sunday football to the National League, one division below League Two.
It's a remarkable story and certainly not the norm, but such a fairytale would be literally impossible in Ireland. The football landscape is disconnected and fractured, with no sporting route from the amateur game into the League of Ireland.
Canham's Football Pathway seeks to change this, with the introduction of a third tier in the men's LOI, a second tier in the women’s, a bigger FAI Cup, and a new FAI amateur cup. There would be six tiers to the game, from the top all the way down, similar to England where once you drop below the National League the competitions become regionalised.
Post-Brexit, the need for Irish football to get its house in order has been magnified. In 2019 85% of the U17s Ireland squad were playing outside of Ireland; in 2022, that was turned on its head, with 80% of the U17s panel based here.
'In terms of what the previous head coach was delivering, we're not suggesting a huge departure from that, we just want a more adaptable, more pragmatic approach' - FAI Director of Football Marc Canham speaks to @Corktod about the prolonged manager search #rtesoccer pic.twitter.com/imTa5hXcfT
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) February 20, 2024
Canham's ambition is to uniform the game from top to bottom, feeding players through what's being termed the 'Green Line'.
"To think about the development of football in Ireland we must think bigger, differently and have a greater level of ambition," said Canham. "We must act now. Standing still isn't an option."
"What we have done through the plan is looked at data, research and consultation. When we looked at high-success and high-performing nations, both at club level and international, they have a clear vision of what they are trying to do from grassroots to international.
"We believe the plan will help achieve. That is also the correlation with international teams that have a clear idea of what they want to do, how they plan and want to coach."
He will encounter weary cynicism as the protracted hunt for a manager rumbles on and we still await official confirmation of a new men's senior team sponsor [Revolut are reported to have come on board]. There's also the small matter of an FAI delegation being due to appear before the Public Accounts Committee again on Thursday.
However there is clarity and common sense within the Football Pathways Plan and its principles are worthy of support. Now Canham has laid out his masterplan, the challenge of executing it begins in earnest.
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