The infighting within the Football Association of Ireland has been discussed ad nauseam and has distracted from real issues such as the state of Finn Harps facilities, according to Dan McDonnell.
McDonnell joined Off The Ball's Saturday Football show and discussed the poor standard of facilities in some League of Ireland clubs in this country that desperately need to be improved.
"Finn Harps are getting dressing rooms from a primary school portacabin," McDonnell said.
"They had to buy some units from the local GAA club just so they could get some sort of acceptable changing facilities."
The issues at Finn Harps were detailed by McDonnell in the Independent yesterday.
The club had to get the cabins into Finn Park in order to ensure that they were allowed to host home games upon the LOI's resumption.
Problems like these are being overshadowed by the controversy that has plagued Irish football for months.
The FAI has been involved in crisis talks in the past week and there has been talk of a split within the ranks of the board.
5 August 2020; FAI Interim Chief Executive Gary Owens and FAI Interim Deputy Chief Executive Niall Quinn during the FAI Board Press Conference at FAI Headquarters in Abbotstown, Dublin. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/SportsfileInterim Deputy CEO of the FAI Niall Quinn has stressed the need for unity within the board of directors and there has seemingly been some reconciliation on both sides in recent days.
McDonnell is concerned that if the focus continues to be on resolving internal dispute there will be no progress for clubs like Finn Harps, something that is desperately needed.
"Finn Harps are a Premier Division football club in the LOI who at the moment are trying to get into a new stadium. I went to see it the other day. The building work has been ceased since 2011," McDonnell continued.
It is an area that continues to be overlooked and there needs to be renewed efforts to improve the standards of our senior game, according to McDonnell.
15 February 2020; Former Republic of Ireland international and current FAI Interim Deputy Chief Executive Niall Quinn in attendance prior to the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division match between Bohemians and Shamrock Rovers at Dalymount Park in Dublin. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile"For years we've had a lot of fluff around what we're doing with football, and there are a lot of clubs in the country whose facilities have improved by the way, but we haven't had that focus to get [all of] the senior level of our game right."
"We need the next decade to about addressing these problems [facing clubs like] Finn Harps, these clubs who need [new] facilities."
For this to occur singular focus is necessary and only then can Irish football prosper. Whether the current atmosphere is conducive to positive change is unclear.
"There's a lot of great people working in football in Ireland and a lot of great minds but they all operate independently looking in different directions and we need to just put it all together, get over this period of turbulence and make the next decade about progress," McDonnell concluded.
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