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A FUND THAT was set up by senior Republic of Ireland internationals to allow the FAI begin a scholarship programme for emerging League of Ireland academy stars went unused by the governing body for almost a year before the money was eventually redistributed.
The 42 has learned that in the region of €30,000 was made available to the FAI after donations from players, among them men’s captain Seamus Coleman, goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu, and centurion James McClean.
When it became clear after numerous requests for updates on progress that the scheme had yet to be utilised by the FAI, it was decided by the players that the money be used for other causes with the Professional Footballers’ Association of Ireland.
The players are believed to have informed the FAI that they remained available to help with the scholarship if the parameters could be put in place to put the scheme into practice.
A number of players, such as Enda Stevens, Kevin Long, Derrick Williams, and Shamrock Rovers duo Jack Byrne and Richie Towell, had also contributed.
It was only last October that the FAI championed the pilot scholarship initiative, stating in a publicity release that it would allow one male and female player aged 17 “receive a salary as well as their schooling covered in conjunction with going full-time at the professional club they’re affiliated to.”
However, it never got off the ground, despite the FAI declaring that “each player will also work with a mental health professional to help monitor and improve how the players navigate the stresses of professional football.”
The fund had originally been started during the Covid-19 pandemic to assist League of Ireland players dealing with hardship.
It was confirmed in that initial FAI statement last year that “due to the management clubs displayed during the COVID pandemic, money remains from the players fund and the players have agreed to use the money to pilot a scholarship initiative.”
Marc Canham, then the FAI’s director of football but who has since been promoted to chief football officer, was in the process of launching the new player pathway plan at the time of this announcement. And the association cited that “education will be an integral part so this programme will be a helpful trial for some of the key areas of that development.”
Canham was quoted in that press release last October: “This programme will be a great trial for some of the initiatives that will form the wider integration of education, which we see as one of the biggest opportunities for football development across the country.”
However, the programme went no further than that press release and it was later stated by the FAI that funding of €10m a year from the Government would help transform the academy system in this country.
A spokesperson for the FAI said: “The Football Association of Ireland continue to make plans to integrate full-time football and education scholarships as part of our overall League of Ireland Academy vision, in line with the aims and objectives set out in our Football Pathways Plan.”
Written by David Sneyd and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won’t find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women’s sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here.
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iPad is without doubt one of the best devices I have ever owned, I love it.
You love it? Wow.
I would guess most people had held out for the last 2-3 months on buying an iPad as the new models were being announced last week.
iPad sales had seen a massive drop in their last earnings report too. It will be even bigger this time next year, people don’t own large-screened phones and use tablets too, it’s pointless. I could see the point of owning both when the iPhone screens were tiny, not now though.
I would imagine people change phones more often than they change a tablet, so the top-end of the tablet market may be suffering some saturation at the moment before it settles into a normal renewal cycle.
I’m genuinely surprised how little iTunes contributes to their income.
Android is still too buggy , there are too many cheap android devices that can’t perform basic tasks.
Anyone can operate an iPad whether they are 3 or 83 , the older generation have embraced apple tech much easier than android!
Get yourself a Samsung. So much better. Ive used ipads before the Samsung. So slow. Im not surprised sales are falling.
I would totally agree.
The fact that you cannot add SD card memory was my turning point.
The 10.1″ Galaxy NOTE 2014 would kick any IPad in performance.
I prefer using the Samsung. Haven’t used the ipad since.
Tablets are used more for watching TV on. Ipads are far too restrictive in what you can and can’t watch.
An android with mobdro and you’re good to go.
Writing this on an iPad that’s 3 1/2 yrs old although it can’t be updated anymore it’s still one of The best bits of Tech I’ve ever owned
I wish they’d change the iTunes interface, it’s such a pain in the hole.
Is the large version of iphone 6 being used as an alternative to the ipad mini?
Yes, I would imagine you are correct. Certainly wouldn’t be a massive difference now between the phones and the iPad mini.
Great phone by the way, the Samsung killer I would say.
Is Apple the cult Tom cruise and John travolta are involved in. (Wrote on my iPhone)
Some people might be holding out for the new iPads, but Apple has been losing ground to Android-based tablets for the past two years: http://blog.globalwebindex.net/Android-dominates-tablet
I’d say they’re fine losing market share to the €100 Android tablets that you see knocking about, the people buying those were unlikely to get an iPad. I’d like to see a breakdown of the flagship tablet market.
Wasn’t Apple heavily dependant on iPod sales at one stage too…
Love Apple computers, don’t like their phones!
That’s odd in the last apple story there was a guy who’s friend worked in a mobile phone shop and apparently they couldn’t sell any iPhones at all.
I was sure that was a reliable source for sales figures.
Being a user of both, I can definitely say that Apple is to restrictive and therefore useless in a lot of ways. Once they have you, they want to enslave you into buying all their products. To many frustrations. Would definitely not recommended Apple. Don’t become an Apple zombie!
Have both myself also , but do not find any real restrictions on IOS. Depends how you use them I suppose. Both are great, but if generally find Apple a better interface and build quality.
I haven’t come across an interesting new app for ages. It’s good to see the hardware improving but the software people seem to have hit a brick wall. It seems to me that the industry needs more personal information from us to develop but we are getting more careful and taking the privacy option where possible. The U2 album fiasco showed that what we want is not what they want to give us. We want to draw back from the always on connected world and to pick and choose how we interact.
Htc have a new range of tablets Comming out on November 3rd and if they are anything like the HTC One M8 phone They will storm the tablet Charts.Sd card will mean a lot more storage freed up on the tablet itself.
HTC One M7 & M8 are great phones but unfortunately they do not sell very well HTC made a big loss on the M7, have improved with the M8, but still nowhere near the likes of Samsung.
Don’t really like Apple myself(except I-tunes, where theres no choice) think Sony is much better all round.
I think the fizz has left Apple recently, it’s not big news anymore.
Always used iPhones but today i upgraded to an S5. Vodafone are out of stock with no date for new iPhone 6 handsets and it would have cost me 250 blips. S5 is free with the same if not better specs. Total no brainer
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