Brian Kerr heavily criticised John Delaney's time in charge of the FAI, on Virgin Media Sport's coverage of the Champions League.
Kerr was forthright when talking about all that went wrong in the organisation over the last number of years, saying that football in Ireland will continue to suffer for years to come.
"I think we are just at the end of a disgraceful era, as far as I’m concerned.
"I think there is massive reputational damage to football in Ireland, to the Association and even ordinary people involved in the game have to take a lot of stick.
“It appears that he and the rest of them that were involved have left behind a complete financial shambles.
“We don’t know the extent of that shambles yet until we hear the results of some of the results."
Kerr's thoughts also went out to the staff at the FAI that have been affected by years of austerity during the economic downturn.
"They have left behind a staff whose morale is at a very low ebb because of the way they have been treated," said Kerr.
“Some of them who were discarded. Some brilliant people who were discarded over time. Some great people were moved on as well.
“They have found out that their pensions weren’t even being paid properly. It appears to have been a big settlement that John’s pension was paid up properly,” Kerr said.
The international team have had some success, qualifying for the European Championship in 2012 and 2016. However, Kerr believes this diverted attention away from what was going awry at the organisation.
“The programmes for underage development - they were all badly resourced over the period of austerity that was overseen by this regime. And I think the game has suffered because of that.
“The League of Ireland has suffered. The grounds have not advanced. The payments to clubs and the prizes for winning the league or the FAI Cup are abysmal.
“We’ve fallen down the rankings, the coefficient, in terms of UEFA and our standing in the European tournaments.
"This is despite the efforts of the clubs individually and particularly Dundalk over the last number of years. I think that’s the legacy,” Kerr commented.
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