FAI chief executive Jonathan Hill has refused to back men's senior international manager Stephen Kenny beyond the 2022 World Cup campaign.
Kenny was asked ahead of the draw with Serbia in the World Cup qualifiers this week, about the effect of the current run of one win in fifteen matches and how it might be affecting his players.
In his response he revealed that he has always been planning post-Qatar.
"We certainly have a plan in place. I’ve taken a decision – right or wrong – that we would build this squad to be a really, really competitive team to qualify for Germany 2024," said Kenny who does not seem to be aligned with the FAI board.
Hill was at the announcement of Sky's four-year partnership with the senior women's team and was asked if the FAI are also planning to stick with Kenny for the Euro 2024 campaign.
"Stephen has a contract until the end of July 2022," said Hill.
"In relation to the current campaign, we as a board review any international window at the end of that window. So on a monthly basis, we'll be looking at the overall World Cup qualification campaign in November and as a board we'll discuss all of the areas and all of the issues.
23 April 2021; Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny, left, and FAI Chief Executive Jonathan Hill before the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division match between Shamrock Rovers and Bohemians at Tallaght Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile"We'll be thinking about it in terms of our own strategy and our own medium term strategy etcetera, etcetera...but we'll have that conversation at that point."
There were reports in some newspapers this week that Kenny may not see out the current campaign if his team lost against Serbia on Tuesday.
The Irish boss remains without a competitive win since taking over from Mick McCarthy but Hill would not state whether the FAI would part ways with Kenny if he fails to get that elusive victory in the next international window.
"Stephen knows, that we have an expectation before every game that we go into to be competitive and win those games but football is football and we've had a range of performances, we've had a range of results," said Hill.
"We will review those as we move forward. I'm not going to have that type of conversation until the end of the campaign."
"Stephen knows there's an expectation before every game that we're going to be competitive and win"
FAI CEO Jonathan Hill has been speaking to @dubsoulrebel pic.twitter.com/CW9KDCKP7X— Off The Ball (@offtheball) September 9, 2021
