Stephen Kenny: 'I've asked the question and no decision has been made'
Stephen Kenny says he would’ve considered releasing a statement if he felt his dismissal as Ireland manager was a foregone conclusion.
An FAI board meeting on November 28 is expected to decide Kenny’s contract won’t be renewed.
They will consider a report and recommendation delivered by Marc Canham, the FAI’s director of football and chief executive Jonathan Hill, reviewing the entirety of the Euro 2024 campaign.
Ireland are guaranteed to finish fourth in their group regardless of the result against the Netherlands in Saturday week’s concluding qualifier at the Amsterdam Arena.
After embarrassing defeats to Luxembourg and Armenia, as well as being held to a draw at home to Azerbaijan, the contract extension he was granted two years was based on allowing a final chance to be competitive for major tournament qualification.
Kenny had also requested allowance for integration of young players to afford him the right to be judged on this campaign.
Unfortunately, his June window — the defeat in Greece and being kept scoreless for 52 minutes at home to minnows Gibraltar — left the Kenny project on life-support.
Further defeats to France and Netherlands in September, even before Greece schooled Ireland in Dublin last month, eroded any remaining goodwill he had from the section of the FAI executive and board loyal to him.
Rather than activating the maximum severance clause in his contract by dispensing with Kenny in the summer and installing a caretaker boss to see out the campaign, the board chose to allow him complete his contract without any liability being due to the cash-strapped organisation.
But the three-and-a-half-year Kenny era that will stumble into a final friendly on November 21 against New Zealand — more of a
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