Eamon Dunphy column: I won't miss Marc Canham ... I never even knew he was here

Irish Daily Mirror

22-04-2025

It MAY have come as a great shock to people to learn that Marc Canham, the chief football officer of the FAI, is about to leave.
But to be honest, I am still trying to figure out when he even arrived because to my mind, he made no impact in his three years in the job.
And, by the way, what exactly was his job?
Initially appointed as director of football, he leaves as chief football officer, which reminds me of the sketch in Monty Python's Life of Brian when there is an argument between the People's Front of Judea and the Judean People's Front.
That's the level of farce you get with the FAI, which has forever left me feeling underwhelmed, angry, disappointed and bemused.
They may have reached peak inadequacy during the John Delaney years but they were unimpressive before he arrived and are still uninspiring now.
This chap Canham sums the new FAI up. He didn't leave his mark. In fact be barely even leaves his Marc.
Let's reexamine the highlights package of his time in Ireland.
The Irish women's team reached their first ever World Cup under Vera Pauw. Her reward was to be shown the exit door.
Stephen Kenny brought about much-needed reform and got no luck. He too was ushered towards the exit.
Next came the longest and most futile search since Lord Lucan disappeared.
Eventually, after eight months, the FAI found their man — a dentist from Iceland.
So that's Marc Canham's legacy. He, like his Dutch predecessors Wim Koevermans and Ruud Dokter, arrived here without a detailed knowledge of Irish culture, Irish schoolboy soccer or the League of Ireland. And it showed in their work.
What's needed now is a commission to be set up, whereby Irish football's three wise men, John Giles, Niall Quinn and Liam Brady, head a panel that investigates what has gone wrong in the game here and what needs to go right.
The answer is Government investment. But if this Government were to hand over millions to the FAI it would be nothing short of a disgrace.
You can't trust those guys to make smart decisions. Where the money has to go is into schoolboy clubs, in terms of their facilities and their coaches, because these are the clubs who have made things happen for Irish football over decades, not just years.
They have the expertise but not necessarily the facilities.
And that's where the Government can come in. They can bypass the FAI and go directly to these clubs with their grant aid.
Certainly we need something to happen because we are no longer producing players. There is no Irish player at Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal or Chelsea. We have Caoimhin Kelleher at Liverpool but for how much longer will he stay at Anfield?
In England and in France, plenty of players are being developed, but they have exceptional academy systems in place. Ireland doesn't.
The old way, where kids honed their skills playing on the street and in schoolboy clubs, has been affected. Modern life dictates that street football no longer exists.
The FAI in their wisdom introduced underage League of Ireland football, which immediately diluted the quality of schoolboy soccer. And standards have decreased.
That's why we need Irish people holding the important jobs in Irish football.
And it's why we need people like Brady, Quinn and Giles to front up the commission which will steer the game in the right direction.
We cannot keep going to people who impress grey-haired board members with a powerpoint presentation.
We need someone who is more comfortable in a tracksuit than in a suit, who knows the game.
The next person in has to have a status and a plan, not just the ability to click a mouse on a keyboard and move seamlessly from one powerpoint slide to the next.
The fan on the street has a right to have someone they rate in charge. If you asked the ordinary fan who Marc Canham is, they wouldn't have a clue.
Mention Jonathan Hill's name and again you'd get a blank face looking back at you.
Mention Hill's successor, David Courell, and once more you would have stony faces staring at you.
I have no idea what Hill or Courell sound like, look like, or stand for.
You might as well have had Benny Hill in there instead of Jonathan.
And as for Canham, well off with you, young man. Your legacy is leaving us with an Icelandic dentist in charge of our national team, a man who may well be able to make your teeth shine, but who has certainly been unable to put a smile back on the face of Irish football.
We won't miss you Marc Canham. To be honest, I barely even knew you were here.