Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny says having a position on the FAI executive does not mean he wants to be a Director of the Association.
A restructure of the Association's affairs will see the current management team reduced from 14 members to 10, with Kenny having a seat at the table as International Football Director.
Speaking to Nathan Murphy of OTB Sports, Kenny has denied that being on the executive will cloud any judgement of his position in terms of results as boss of the senior team.
"The way Gary Owens (interim CEO) spoke to me, I'm not a Director of the FAI. I have no desire to be. I only ever wanted to be the manager, but I have a strong voice, I've articulated that strong voice since I've been in as Under-21 manager on all football issues.
"There's a seat at the table for me to articulate that voice if necessary, but he doesn't want me getting bogged down in meetings about budgets and so forth in relation to various different departments and I don't intend on doing that. There's a vacancy there that I can step in and voice my opinion on major football issues because we want football to be at the centre of the FAI."
Kenny feels that it makes sense for every unit of the business to come together and work towards a common goal.
"The FAI should be about the international teams, the national league, the national league teams, schoolboy football throughout the country and the amateur game. Football should be at the centre of the FAI and all the other departments should supplement that, not sort of a fragmented set of departments in an organisation. Every other department should support the key football areas. We have had a period of austerity with the international teams over the years where managers haven't been able to prepare the teams the way they would have wanted. What do you get from that? You get eight years of non-players coming through."
The Dublin native also insisted that his role on the executive would not result in him stepping on the toes of Dutchman Ruud Dokter.
"Ruud Dokter is the technical director. It's his area to appoint managers. He's made great appointments. It's a collaborative approach and we'll work together in terms of trying to ensure that all of the managers are able to prepare the teams in the way that they need to."
You can WATCH the full interview with Nathan Murphy and Stephen Kenny below.
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