1) Who will replace Stephen Kenny?
The question the country finds most compelling. The FAI hope to fill the role in time for the double header in March and they have kept the process well guarded to now: it has had nothing on the Dunphy-trashing-Venables-as-Howard-Kendall-pitches-his-wares-on-Newstalk frenzy of the race to succeed Steve Staunton.
The two frontrunners for the job now appear to be Lee Carsley and Chris Hughton, both of whom are in international employment at the moment: Carsley with England’s U21s and Hughton with Ghana, though his continuing in the job appears to hinge on success at AFCON.
Hughton has a previous working relationship with Packie Bonner, who sits on the FAI’s board and whose extensive football experience naturally makes him an influential voice. Carsley, though, has worked with FAI director of football Marc Canham before: both worked as club support managers at the Premier League, where they were assigned to academies to support the introduction of England’s wildly successful Elite Player Performance Plan.
Perhaps the FAI will surprise us with another candidate, but regardless of who it is, it’s difficult to see anyone being a guarantee of success, such are the flaws in both the team and the Irish football system as a whole.
2) Can Eileen Gleeson maintain the momentum?
It seemed Eileen Gleeson was ruled out of the Ireland women’s job on a monthly basis until the moment she was appointed. What an impressive job she did in the Nations League, winning six from six with a panache largely absent from Vera Pauw’s more prosaic winners.
But to what extent was all of that down to the meagre quality of the opposition? We will know this year, when Ireland start swimming with the sharks at the top of the game. The playoff backdoor gives Ireland a strong chance of qualifying for the 2025 Euros.
But given Ireland could be paired with the two out of England, Spain, and France, it will be intriguing to see how they cope at the elite standard of the European game. It’s a stark fact that the unloved Pauw had a much more impressive CV in management than Gleeson has: the less cause Ireland give for that to be raised over the next year, the better.
3) Can the FAI’s new player development plan lead the change that’s needed?
Marc Canham has felt like a professional recruiter in recent weeks, but his time at the FAI should not be solely judged on the success or otherwise of Gleeson and the next men’s manager. The FAI’s new player development plan is set to be unveiled soon - potentially by the end of this month – and if it yields the kind of success the aforementioned Elite Player Plan has in England, then Canham will be remembered as one of the most important Irish football figures of modern times.
But to indulge in exquisite understatement, he is not working in the same environment this time around. The Premier League was awash with cash, whereas Irish football is defined by its absence. How to maximise talent to a European standard when the facilities and number of full-time coaches in Ireland are miles off those European standards?
There is also no political environment like Irish football’s, which will have to be navigated in the implementation of the plan. If the Irish plan similar to the Premier League’s and recommends professional academies get earlier access to young players, this will likely be met by opposition from grassroots and schoolboy clubs.
The FAI’s plan, however, needs to work, because we have had years of proof the old ways are no longer fit for purpose.
4) Can anyone stop Shamrock Rovers from winning a fifth-straight title?
Shamrock Rovers were vulnerable to being caught last season, but in the end they strode clear, in part thanks to a confident finish but also to faltering opposition. Derry City were the big disappointment: they actually ended up with one point fewer than they had in 2022, a major frustration given Rovers finished seven points worse off.
Rovers have strengthened in the off-season by recruiting Darragh Burns and, crucially, retaining Jack Byrne and Rory Gaffney. But who are their main rivals? Derry have more transfer work to do if they are to maintain that status, though the likely arrival of Pat Hoban should address their goalscoring problem. St Pat’s won the FAI Cup and used its warm afterglow to do a lot of admirably quick business, with Ruairi Keating the most intriguing arrival. Okay, it’s much too early to be making pre-season predictions. but it’s tough to look beyond Pat’s or Derry as the only candidates to dethrone Rovers.
5) Can Peamount continue to thrive?
One of the more admirable achievements in Irish football last year was the sheer obstinacy of Peamount United’s title victory. With Shamrock Rovers’ arrival came a draining of talent from a number of clubs, chiefly Peamount, who saw Aine O’Gorman and Stephanie Zambra move to Tallaght.
And yet they beat on, with their academy producing players like Jess Fitzgerald, Ellen Dolan and Freya Healy and inspiring them to a sweet title triumph. That Peamount are not affiliated with a men’s club is already feeling a little anachronistic, but 2023 was ample proof they are in a position to thrive once again this year.
6) Can Evan Ferguson and Katie McCabe continue to mint their reputations?
Evan Ferguson is among the most exciting talents in European football: a dip in form acknowledged by his manager at the end of 2023 doesn’t change this. Brighton have been careful with his minutes and that de Zerbi is driving high standards can only be good for Ferguson and, by extension, Ireland. Nonetheless, if de Zerbi was picking a first-choice XI for a major European game tomorrow, then Ferguson would be in it. Ferguson has an all-round skillset that is perfect for the modern game, and is at the right club to develop it. The Europa League offers a stage commensurate with his quality right now, and what a story it would be were he to help Brighton to a final held at the Aviva Stadium.
Ferguson has the ability to become world-class, whereas Katie McCabe is already there. Arsenal’s early elimination from the Champions League robs her of another major stage on which she can make the case for Ballon D’Or votes, but Ireland’s step up in the quality of opponent in the Nations League should go a long way to compensating for that.
7) Can the FAI recover and find the finance the game needs to survive?
This, really, is the biggest question of the year. The early half of last year was going very well for the FAI. They released a largely-lauded infrastructure report, went to a Dáil debate that largely acknowledged their progress and, on the pitch, oversaw a domestic league flourishing within admittedly narrow limits and improbably sent a team to the women’s World Cup. There followed bid success for Euro 2028 and all kinds of political gushing.
But as it turns out, it was all going too well.
The FAI remain under a kind of State probation, and the farrago about payments to CEO Jonathan Hill was a deeply damaging episode. It made it too easy for politicians to trot out lines drawing parallels with the end of John Delaney’s tenure.
The FAI need to regain political and public credibility this year as they continue to press for State investment into football, investment that’s needed not to make sure the sport here suddenly outstrips all of Europe, but merely gives it a chance of keeping pace.
Their half-a-billion ask of central government over the next 15 years is not a lot in the context of the historic (under)funding of the sport here, along with comparable spending on sport across the rest of the EU. It sounds like a lot of money, though, when it’s put down on paper and subject to Ireland’s zero-sum model for the funding of all sports. Irish football needs to be able to send a credible and coherent message to politicians, and managing and delivering that message is the job of the FAI. They must find a way past the lamentable headlines of last year.
8) Will the FAI/League of Ireland structure continue to hold?
This is a longer-term question unlikely to be addressed in 2024, but it’s worth bearing in mind. The FAI have put a renewed emphasis on the professional leagues here and it is helping to bear as much fruit as is currently possible. The grim fact is current infrastructure means there is now little room for further growth. Improving that situation means the FAI getting money from the government, so clubs will have had reason to groan at the Hill payments saga and the initial failure to achieve State-mandated gender balance on the FAI board, which put funding at risk. It was a classic instance of one major constituency in Irish football being beholden to the politicking of another. (The original sin, of course, is that the amateur and professional games here are siloed so far apart.)
Clubs are also dealing with more costs than ever, with the FAI not in a position to give any meaningful financial support to the running of academies. If the FAI cannot deliver a significant injection of funding in the medium-term, then clubs will be tempted to look elsewhere for investment. The Irish Independent’s recent revelations that the FAI held talks with overseas investors about a potential breakaway league is testament to the fact those opportunities exist.
The European football landscape is changing too: Luxembourg club Swift Hesperange are going to the EU Court of Justice to argue for their right to join a cross-border league, and if the recent Super League judgement is anything to go by, it’s likely the EU will not rule out the possibility of these cross-border leagues being established.
Cross-border leagues are also becoming a financial necessity across all of Europe, with Uefa complicit in funnelling a disproportionate amount of money to the elite clubs of the Champions League. Expanded leagues may be Uefa’s easiest answer to addressing the demands of their middle classes. And if those moves start happening within a short flight of Dublin, LOI clubs will explore their options.
9) Who will emerge as a leader of the Irish men’s team?
Was there a player more missed than Seamus Coleman in 2023? It’s hardly a coincidence that Ireland’s best qualifying performance was the only one for which Coleman was fit: at home to France. In his absence, Ireland’s honest, youthful squad really lacked in-game adaptability. Coleman is by no means finished, but he is entering the autumn of his career: he will be 36 at the start of the 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign. Ireland lacked leaders to stand up in his absence last year, and finding an heir to Coleman is one of the biggest tasks facing Stephen Kenny’s replacement.
