Marc Canham, the Director of Football for the FAI, faced his inaugural challenge during the women’s World Cup hosted by Australia the previous summer. The event did not reflect well on many of those involved in Irish football. Among controversial incidents, the previous manager of the Ireland national team, Vera Pauw, publicly criticised Canham and the now-ex chief executive of the FAI, Jonathan Hill, for meddling in the practical aspects of the game. This occurred after Canham undertook an event review while he was still in Brisbane, leading him to give a public explanation for his actions.
Canham, who had been fulfilling his current role for a year, informed the public during September: “Pleasure to meet everyone. My role at the FAI involves managing all the international teams, the men’s, the women’s, and every youth team from under-15s to adults. Given my position, it was only fitting that I headed the review.”
Despite Pauw’s strong objection, it did seem practical for Canham to discuss with the staff and players before they dispersed. Moreover, it came to light that Pauw’s request to halt a trial match against Colombia midway due to rough play was not authorised by the on-field director of football, but instead by Hill from his office located somewhere in the northern hemisphere.
In June 2022, Canham secured his place beating John Morling and Pat Fenlon, the current director of football for Bohemians, in a competition for a task which proved to be an immense undertaking. Morling, who seemed a likely choice given his seven years of coaching experience with Brian Kerr’s underage Irish teams and mentoring Evan Ferguson, Aaron Connolly and Andy Moran at the Brighton and Hove Albion academy, received a one-year consultancy contract instead. Hill decided to select the Premier League director of coaching, a role which Canham had performed for a year only.
“I am overjoyed, along with my family, to be relocating to Ireland,” Canham expressed during a press conference, accentuating his substantial contribution to the Premier League’s Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP). This scheme increased the representation of English players in top-flight English football clubs. Ged Roddy, Canham’s manager at non-league Team Bath for six years and the architect of EPPP, now holds a position in FIFA.
For an entire year, the ex-England futsal player opted for a media silent mode while interacting with diverse facets of Irish football, often via voice notes on WhatsApp. Meanwhile, Morling finds himself in a self-imposed exile to master Cantonese, stepping into the role of a technical director within Hong Kong’s football arena. He perceives similarities between the predicaments in Hong Kong and Ireland’s football structure.
Casual conversations with Canham unravel his self-assured approach, although he initially lacked in-depth understanding of the country’s convoluted sports hierarchy. Notably, the 41-year-old often uses managerial buzzwords when on the record.
Two major challenges still stay put on Canham’s agenda. First and foremost is the execution of his high-aspiration Player Pathways Programme (PPP), first introduced in February 2024. By that time, the Football Director was grappling to rationalise the ridiculous manager-appointing procedure for the men’s team.
During the PPP introductory event, Canham confidently told the present journalists about the forthcoming reveal of Stephen Kenny’s successor in the “early April”. He was clear about his choice, but some “pre-existing contract complexities” caused a short delay in the announcement.
With his project, Canham declared to be “confidential, robust, diligent, and professional”. He said, “we are nearing completion, and our procedure is quite close to the process for the appointment of a women’s head coach, with similar timelines.”
After “thorough interviews” with 12 applicants, Canham waited 15 weeks to award the temporary woman’s manager, Eileen Gleeson, an 18-month contract in December. Yet, it’s known now that it might take no less than eight months to fill the vacancy for the men’s role.
“Canham’s discourse seems borrowed from a coaching-certification programme,” observed Kevin Kilbane. “Bold declarations. Nebulous pledges. Pretence until accomplishment. The Irish citizens can discern a fabricated statement from miles away, from Colchester to Malahide. Canham must explain what he means by ‘pre-existing contractual complexities’ or risk losing his job as the football director.
“The question of whether Hill and Canham were ever suited to undertake this task is now validly raised”
The PR agency, Teneo, continues to be retained by the FAI as they scramble to resolve the ongoing catastrophe.
In February, Canham embarked on a provincial tour, hosting a quartet of public meetings to promote his 12-year strategy for transforming the sport into a “pyramid system”. His visionary broad strokes were striking, but specifics seemed to elude him during question and answer sessions.
In April, Hill dissociated himself from the association shortly prior to his Director of Football cancelling a media briefing slated to discuss the stalling manager search. Instead, Canham chose an internal interview with FAI communications staff member Cathal Dervan, during which he expressed regret for setting three unrealistic deadlines and gave assurances a “head coach” would be appointed before England’s visit to Dublin on September 7th.
Canham became the target of online ridicule following his YouTube appearance. He extended a public offer to John O’Shea for the position of interim manager for June friendlies against Hungary and Portugal, without conferring with the former Manchester United defender beforehand. This move inadvertently gave O’Shea an upper hand during negotiations.
This led to the question towards FAI: Outside of hiring two interim Irish “head coaches”, who were excluded from the initial interview round, what experience does Canham boast in football manager recruitment?
Canham held the position of head coach at the Bristol City academy for eight months in 2013. Prior to that, he served for five years as a “skills coach” and “team leader” at the English FA. Subsequently, he spent nine years in the Premier League overseeing “strategic and operational coaching matters”.
It’s confirmed that Canham, Hill, and Packie Bonner, the now-disbanded FAI recruitment team, were approached by four potential Irish managers – Lee Carsley, Anthony Barry, Gus Poyet and Chris Hughton. However, when it came down to clinching a deal, no agreement was reached.
Canham faces a raft of persistent, deep-seated issues. Any semblance of achievement in the 2020s could be out of reach. His Dutch predecessors, Ruud Dokter and Wim Koevermans, managed to lay some groundwork over a 13-year period, but their philosophies seemed to conflict with Irish cultural norms. One notable example being Dokter’s promotion of football specialisation from the age of 12.
Canham seems to grasp the fact that an English answer to an Irish problem won’t be effective. His mission is to establish a sustainable, education-focused academy system, his proverbial stomping ground.
“He expressed the imperative to shift from the status quo,” he declared. He referred to Croatia and Belgium as parallels, observing their comparable population and infrastructure size. These examples may provide us with the motivation and aspiration to ponder, ‘If they managed such accomplishments, what can we do?’
Nonetheless, the local game continues, functioning with two dozen club academies and unpaid volunteer trainers. There are 10 academies and 190 workforce members in Croatia, while Belgium has 264 personnel managing 16 excellence centers.
Upon being questioned about the implementation of the PPP, Canham discussed about making challenging compromises: “To progress with the pathways blueprint, we might have to halt certain activities in order to kick-start others.”
Appointing Shane Robinson as Assistant Director of football seems to be a calculated decision as the previous head of the Shamrock Rovers academy is well-versed in the convoluted political landscape of Irish football. Recently, Robinson highlighted the IRFU system as an “ideal model” that the FAI should not ignore.
Analogies of Canham to David Nucifora fall short once one scrutinises the advanced academies in fee-imposing primary and secondary education institutions. Canham was astounded discovering an absence of a similar framework in Irish football post his commencement in charge.
Nucifora had the power to withdraw funding from a professional region that did not comply with directives. Such authority will never vest in Canham. However, currently, his actions or inactions have exposed him to scrutiny, with critics like Roddy Collins dubbing him as a proficient PowerPoint presenter.
Of course, this appraisal is not comprehensive. Yet, after two years into a twelve-year venture that requires constant, significant outcomes, the public primarily knows him in these terms.