'I'm not a political animal I couldn't be bothered fighting those stupid games'

If Brendan Menton hadn’t taken a big, life-changing decision in 1995 to give up a secure, blue-chip banking job with Allied Irish Bank (AIB) we might never have heard of him. He would, more than likely, never have become General Secretary of the FAI. It’s unlikely he would ever have found himself in front of the world’s TV cameras in 2002 as one of the biggest storms in Irish soccer blew itself out during that year’s World Cup in Japan and South Korea.

Events in Saipan and the row between Mick McCarthy and Roy Keane became a global story. 
It went viral before going viral was fashionable and as the Football Association of Ireland’s top official back then Menton found himself in the middle of the sad, sorry mess. 
Like so many others he was unable to to resolve it all and Keane returned home, but because of the controversy Menton had become a familiar face to millions. 
He was to find himself in a few other storms during a tumultuous six years in the FAI - and he could have been forgiven for wondering at times if he had made the right decision when he gave up that safe bank job back in ‘95 when he was in his mid-40s and a married man with a young family. 
“Everyone thought I was crazy giving up a safe, pensionable reasonably well-paid job,” the 68-year-old said as he sat in his spacious, comfortable house on the Kilbride road outside Ratoath and reflected on his life so far. 
“I just felt the need for a change. The repetition was a factor. Did I want to spend the next 20 years of my life doing the same thing, making the same journey to work? “I was part of the bank’s dealing room at the time, I was one of the first to work in the newly-built IFSC (International Financial Services Centre) but I just felt life should have a bit more to offer ‘so let’s trying something else’ I thought.
“I was lucky, my wife Linda (they recently marked their 44th wedding anniversary) was a teacher so there was a salary coming into the house. I could afford to take risks maybe others couldn’t.”
Then life intervened in the most unexpected ways. He became honoury treasurer of the FAI. 
He also occupied the top job for a time, general secretary first on a temporary, then later full-time basis before stepping down in 2002 and moving on to take up a role with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for six years and a consultancy position with FIFA for another few years. 
In those roles he travelled all over Asia, working with various football associations, and enjoyed some of the best years of his life. Linda was to eventually join him and they savoured life in that part of the world before returning home - back to their home near Ratoath and their growing contingent of grandchildren. 
These days Menton is happily retired. He keeps busy by reading, working in his large garden, and “helping to mind the grandchildren.” 
It’s all a long way from the, madcap, turbulent days when he was involved with the FAI, as the organisation lurched from one crisis to another, prompting somebody to compare it - with humorous, brilliant aptness - to “a constantly exploding clown’s car.”
 

HOME FARM

Football was part of Brendan Menton’s life from the start. The son of Brendan Menton senior (who was a driving force behind the setting up of Home Farm before he served as a top ranking FAI official). Brendan junior has clearly never lost his love for the game. 
He followed the fortunes of the Republic of Ireland soccer team and travelled to Germany for Euro ‘88. Along with two other friends he drove around the country taking in seven games in nine days. Halcyon days. 
Yet when asked what was the first international match he attended he stops to try and remember but can’t. Instead he recalls club games with clarity: a Leinster Senior Cup game back in the day between Home Farm and Dundalk; a contest between Home Farm A and Home Farm B in a FAI Youth Cup final way back. It’s an indication his heart is in the grassroots of the game. 
Like his dad, young Brendan became an economist and worked in the Economic and Social Research Institute, then the Confederation of Irish Industry and later AIB. Losing his zest for the job he gave it up in ‘95. He had plans to set up a financial services company, but the business of the FAI absorbed his time. 
He certainly didn’t map out a course to get to the top of the Association. It just happened. He approached his FAI roles with enthusiasm, bit over time, all that was to be eroded. 
A scandal over the sale of World Cup tickets that became known as ‘Merriongate’ was the first big storm to blow up in early in 1996 with Menton taking over as general secretary on a temporary role as the mess was worked out. 
Then there was the Eircom Park controversy. Big plans were announced to build a new stadium of that name, but for Menton, then the Association’s treasurer, the sums just didn’t add up. 
“Eircom Park was predicated on getting an increased number of international matches, increased attendances, increasing the price of admission for fans, increase the commercial income. 
“Everything was predicated on greatly increasing attendances and revenues from international games. I was treasurer at the time and I simply didn’t think it was going to be that easy.” 
The FAI spent millions on the project, but in time the idea had to be abandoned. 
Then there was Saipan. 
Menton was in Dublin when it all blew up. He flew out to Japan and did his best to try and find some solution to the rift between Keane and McCarthy as the world watched.
All such attempts failed and Ireland pushed on without Keane, reaching the second round where they lost to Spain. Another row erupted over a contract bonus the then treasurer, John Delaney, had verbally offered McCarthy without Menton knowing about it. Menton became seriously disillusioned with the FAI; the political in-fighting, the rows. 
“I’m not a political animal, I couldn’t be bothered fighting those stupid games.”
Frustrated by it all he resigned as the FAI’s top man in 2002. He had worked hard to carry through reforms, but it proved difficult to say the least. He had enough. 
 

THE GREEN DOOR

The following year he published a book - ‘Beyond the Green Door’ about his days in the FAI. “I wanted to purge my soul of the stupidity,” he wrote. “Success does not bring you support in the FAI it makes you a target,” he added. “There is no end to the stories of stupidity I could relate,” was another observation. When offered the chance to work with AFC he went with his “gut feeling” and took it. 
On the day the Meath Chronicle called to talk to Menton news had just filtered through that the FAI had requested the government to provide them with an €18 million bailout as the beleagured organisation tried to find a way out of a rising mountain of debt, now believed to be €62 million.
Menton gave a wry smile when he talked about that piece of news and wondered “why €18m?” He fears the organisation is simply “insolvent” something that, he admits, makes him sad because the game could suffer “for generations to come.” He reflects on an auditing system he introduced, but it appears to be no more. 
Having lived in Meath for many years now, first in the Clonee area, more recently near Ratoath, he smiles when it is jokingly pointed out to him he is now an “honourary Meath man.” 
An affable, friendly man Menton smiles readily - even when he is describing some of those madcap moments he experienced since stepping down from that banking job back in ‘95.