The FAI have revealed that over 50 staff members have or will depart the organisation as they launched a new strategy for the remainder of the decade, with some compulsory redundancies taking place in "the coming days".
Unveiled under the headline of 'It's Time To Change The Game’, in the strategy FAI chief executive David Courell revealed that out of the 55 UEFA nations, the Republic of Ireland are the third worst performer based on a number of criteria.
That is evaluated under playing base, players in international football and club football. Overall it showed significant under-performance for Irish football.
The strategy has simple goals of ensuring more boys and girls are playing football, developing facilities at every level, academy improvements and reform governance structures further.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport's Tony O'Donoghue this afternoon, Courell said the organisation can’t shy away from its failures.
"Something is not right," he said. "This new strategy is trying to address those systemic challenges that we have by, first of all, trying to get more boys and girls playing football, secondly, improving our facilities, and thirdly, working with our League of Ireland academies to improve the talent pathway, not only for the product of the League of Ireland, but also for our international success.
"I think we've been going through a period of reset over the last number of years.
"Everything from our governance reform that we undertook in 2020 through 2023. Sadly, we've undergone a significant transformation programme, which has seen a substantial change to our workforce over the last number of months as well.
"This doesn't start and finish with this strategy. We've been building towards it. We're well positioned now to go and deliver on this vision."
The job losses will see the FAI's number of employees reduce by over 25%.
Courell explained: "Within the next few weeks, we'll be at around 200. That's down from a peak of about 260, give or take, 265. So it’s significant change.
"We've experienced, in net numbers, that 48 of our colleagues have left the organisation on a voluntary basis and sadly there will be a handful of compulsories that will follow in the coming days.
"The reality is we're a not-for-profit organisation, so the decisions that we've taken in this space have only been driven with the ambitions of Irish football at the heart of it.
"What has happened is the organisation hasn't changed its shape or its set-up in quite a substantial period of time, meaningfully. This was an opportunity as part of that reset to look at our long-term vision, the four-year strategy that we have, and some of our strategies extend beyond that, to set ourselves up for success.
"It is to make sure that we have the right roles, the right skills, the right focus, and importantly, the accountability to go and deliver that. That is what we've done."
The chief executive revealed the FAI's debt is down to just over €36million, down from a peak of €63.5m.
He said their debt repayments will slow until Euro 2028 and expects it to be below €25m at the end of that period.
The men's senior team are bidding to qualify for the World Cup in March, which would dramatically change the FAI's position, beginning with a play-off semi-final against Czech Republic.
The new strategy is available here.
