FORMER WOMEN’S NATIONAL team assistant coach Colin Healy has hit out at the FAI over what he believes is a lack of “transparency and compassion” in the manner of his recent exit from the organisation. 

Healy left the FAI along with Eileen Gleeson in December, but Healy contends that chief football officer Marc Canham had given him assurances he would remain at the FAI beyond the end of Gleeson’s tenure. Healy said this assurance led him to turn down a full-time position as the manager of Cobh Ramblers. 

Healy says he intends to lodge a formal complaint to the FAI’s director of people and culture over his treatment as an employee. 

In a lengthy statement – published two hours prior to Canham facing the media as part of the unveiling event with Gleeson’s successor, Carla Ward – Healy explained the circumstances of his departure from the FAI last month. 

Healy says he received a call from Canham a few minutes before the FAI made the public announcement regarding Gleeson’s departure, informing him his contract as assistant coach would not be renewed. Healy says this came as a “shock”, claiming Canham had “verbally assured” him his contract would be extended along with Gleeson’s. This conversation, says Healy, took place prior to the Euro 2025 play-off against Wales: Healy had been offered the Cobh Ramblers job and wanted clarity to make a decision. 

Healy said he instructed his representatives, Integrity Sports, to issue a statement making it clear he had been let go from the role along with Gleeson, given the FAI’s statement did not mention this fact. 

Healy says Canham was aware of the Cobh Ramblers job offer. Healy describes the Cobh job as an opportunity at a “progressive club” which would allow him combine his coaching career with his duties as a single father to his two young children, close to his Cork home. Healy’s wife Kelly passed away last year. 

“Although I loved working with the WNT and felt a huge loyalty to the staff and to the players, given my family situation, the financial certainty the Cobh position offered felt irresponsible to ignore”, says Healy in a statement issued today by his representatives. 

“I eventually made the decision to stay with the WNT, and allowed my heart to rule my head based on the confidence Marc Canham shown that I’d continue to work with the FAI beyond my contract expiration.

“I am not naive and have been in football a very long time – coaches lose their jobs, which is just the harsh reality of sport. But there is a way to behave and a way to treat people. I feel the treatment I received lacked transparency and compassion, and that there was a total disregard shown toward my welfare as an employee – a reality that now sees me out of work, and affects my ability to provide for my children.”

Healy further alleges that the FAI CEO David Courell believed Healy left of his own volition, rather than having been let go by the Association. 

“On the morning of 12 December 2024, I received a text from FAI CEO, David Courell – who I believe to be a very decent man – sincerely thanking me for my time with the association”, says Healy. 

“But rather surprisingly, David also expressed genuine sorrow that it had been communicated to him that I had made the decision not to continue, whilst also being very clear that the FAI would have welcomed an opportunity for me to continue my work with them. By reply I informed David that it was not my decision to leave and that I was, in fact, let go.

“I have taken some time over Christmas to allow the dust to settle,” continued Healy.

“The last year has been the toughest of my life, given that I lost my wife, Kelly, so I did not want to make any decision on how to progress with this issue while emotional. But it has been over a month since I was relieved of my responsibilities at the FAI, and the nature of my treatment still feels completely unacceptable.”

Healy continues, “Furthermore, I do not understand how David Courell, in his position as CEO, could have been under the initial impression that I had chosen to leave the association when that was never the case – something I find particularly unsettling.”

Healy thanked Denise O’Sullivan and other players for reaching out to him in support. 

“I feel I owe a debt of gratitude to these players that I can never repay”, says Healy. “When Kelly passed away, my children and I decided that I should go back to work quickly so we could find some form of normality. Football has been a huge part of our lives for as long as we can remember.

“My work with the staff and players helped me get through my toughest days. Their support enabled me to find a peace of mind which allowed me give the best version of myself to my children when they needed me. Yet again in this instance, Denise and the players have been there when I have needed them.

“In a generation where too many refuse to stand up for others and do the right thing when they can affect behaviour that is well below the level we should all expect to receive, these women do not just talk about principle – they live it and lead by example. It was one of the honours of my life to work with them.”

The FAI declined to comment when contacted by The 42, though Courell and Canham will face the media at Ward’s unveiling later this afternoon.