On Soccer: As it emerged over the past few days that there is pretty much complete unanimity amongst the officers, elected board members and senior staff of the FAI that Fran Rooney should depart it became more or less impossible to see how the man, heralded less than 18 months ago as the future of the organisation, can remain with it even until Christmas.

Barring an almost miraculous reversal in his fortunes it seems no longer to be a case of whether he will depart but when he will go and, of course, with how much.

His impending departure may cheer the enemies he made in Merrion Square but the fact another chief executive/general secretary is to be shown the door tends to add weight to arguments that the association is unmanageable in its current form.

If the recent cycle is anything to go by then the next man to occupy the post will have a much stronger grounding in football administration and much less of a business pedigree. He will, in short, be that most maligned of creatures, a blazer, and he will be hailed as the man to help the association rebuild its battered image. When his time is up (my money is on just before or just after the next World Cup, depending on whether we qualify or not) he will, in turn, be replaced by a suit.

Reports that the people who compiled the Genesis report are set to return will not inspire confidence the association's depressing slide towards laughing stockdom will be halted with this latest bout of bloodletting. But if the officers that hired Rooney now fire him, they need to make a serious and public attempt to ensure the sorry affair isn't repeated at roughly 18 month intervals.

For a start they need to restore the confidence of the organisation's many stakeholders in its finances. The results of the Sports Council audit carried out this year should be made public and Brendan Dillon and Kevin Fahy, the two officers forced out over the past year effectively for being disruptive, should be allowed, in effect, to put up or shut up.

If the books are in good order, and there has never been firm evidence to the contrary, Peter Buckley should take on the new financial director's job without further interference from the government or Sports Council. If not there will be a case for bringing in an outsider. Either way an end will be put to the damaging speculation.

At the weekend it was suggested by Rooney's camp that an outsider enjoying the confidence of the government, Phil Flynn was mentioned, be brought in as his number two until the problems are sorted. There is merit in this although the person in question should actually be put in charge while a review of the association's functions is carried out.

The idea this time should not be to figure out how to provide pampered players with a little additional comfort on their travels or how to run a medium sized office. Instead there should be a fundamental reassessment of the association's work of running a game played on a regular basis by around 10 per cent of the population. The officers should take a back seat while this is carried out and an evaluation of their roles should form part of the brief.

A couple of the present group have, publicly at least, shown little talent for much over the past few years other than self-preservation. In the case of the current president there is also evidence he is, contrary to the association's own rules, effectively working full-time for it. Contrary to media reports it seems no arrangement has been made with Heineken, his longer term employers, to facilitate this situation but only, it turns out, because nobody got around to making one.

The one officer commonly credited with contributing a great deal over the past few years, John Delaney, must also take some responsibility for the organisation's plight. Not only did he play an important part in Rooney's appointment but he used his influence to assist the chief executive dispense with some of those Rooney claimed were obstructing his work. Barely a couple of months after the last victim, Fahy, departed he appears to have concluded he backed the wrong horse.

It's possible an outsider would conclude the influence of the officer board needs to be preserved given that, however indirectly, it affords the association's membership with representation at the highest level, but it's hard to see the conventions that allow the president and vice-president to be elected on the basis of an informal rota and the latter incumbent to automatically succeed the former being permitted to persist.

There should, though, be a pay-off for the association in return for submitting itself to close external scrutiny. The government support to the association is disgracefully low given the social benefits, both existing and potential, the game offers to the population. Even including the 300,000 which the Sports Council is threatening to withhold, the 2 million due to the organisation this year is equivalent to no more than the turnover of the largest league club, Shelbourne.

The review should include an impartial assessment of the organisation's over-hyped but terribly under-funded technical plan as well a cost benefit analysis of the many other ways in which it would like to invest in the game. A commitment should be given that projects judged to provide real value for money to the taxpayer should be backed.

There are no guarantees but at the end of it all the country just might get what it deserves, a properly funded and professionally run sport more talked about for the way it enhances the lives of the many than the regularity with which it enriches the lucky few who call the shots for a short spell before being encouraged to move on and pursue other interests.