16-05-2025
Stephen Kenny quoting WB Yeats summed up unique aspect of Irish football as FAI searches for Marc Canham replacement
THE common theme in all the talk about who should replace Marc Canham as the FAI's chief football officer — still a stupid corporate job title — is that he or she knows Irish football.
Everyone points out that Irish football is unique — as if getting a grip on the English, Welsh, Icelandic or whatever culture would be easier for anyone.
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WB Yeats made a surprise cameo in LOI circles this week
Credit: RTE
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Stephen Kenny has a habit of being quite poetic with his own language
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An exact exit date for Canham has yet to emerge
But then you're reminded just how unique Irish football is
The St Pat's boss paraphrased 'September 1913' when he said: 'Sportsmanship is dead and gone, it's with O'Leary in the grave.'
I'm sure I'm not the only person who immediately had memories of the Leaving Cert 'Soundings' poetry book, of scribbled notes in the margins and 'Paradise Lost'.
Getting all the various Irish football factions together is akin to following Kavanagh's 'Thick-tongued mumble' and sowing in the 'Stony Grey Soil'.
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It is about breaking through the 'Monuments of its magnificence', which Yeats was likely not writing about in 'Sailing to Byzantium'.
The next chief football officer of the FAI does not just need a good grounding in Irish football, but also a good Soundings.
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