There was something inevitable about the news that Euro 2020 would be pushed into 2021. But the decision to set the playoff date for June 10 again raised the issue of who will be Ireland manager should we reach the European Championships.
Stephen Kenny is, of course, poised to become Ireland manager in September of this year. Mick McCarthy's brief as Ireland manager was essentially to manage us into and through Euro 2020. Deciding out who would manage Ireland in Euro 2021 seems like a very thorny issue for the oft-embattled FAI.
The question was put to Niall Quinn this evening in an FAI video briefing and his answer, quite frankly, was 'talk to us in June'.
INTERVIEW | FAI Interim Deputy CEO Niall Quinn on...
➡️ EURO 2020 update
➡️ COVID-19 precautions
➡️ Meetings with LOI clubs
➡️ Positive impact of Irish football pic.twitter.com/IMk2MRUrXO— FAIreland ⚽️🇮🇪 (@FAIreland) March 17, 2020
'Again, I don't think there's any point in doing anything about that now. We're still in a position where we don't know whether we're going to the Euros or not. We'll know on June the tenth. I think the June the 10th would be the right time to start worrying, or overly worrying about that particular instance.'
Technically Quinn is wrong - we'll still have the Bosnia/NI match to play should we beat Slovakia and we'll know after June 10th.
For all we know, June 10th could be a massively optimistic date for Ireland's trip to Slovakia. The longer this runs, the more of a headache it will be for Quinn and co.
