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Ireland dumps manager Steve Staunton

Ireland manager Steve Staunton, right, reacts during a Group D Euro 2008 qualifying soccer match against the Czech Republic in Prague, Czech Republic, on Sept. 12. PHOTO: AP

Ireland manager Steve Staunton was fired yesterday over his team's dismal European Championship qualifying campaign.

The 10-member board of the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) dumped the 38-year-old from his first coaching job after deliberations that ran past midnight. Staunton reportedly asked to be given the chance to lead the team toward the 2010 World Cup, but was doomed by recent poor performances and fan fury.

In a statement issued at 1am, FAI executives said they and Staunton had agreed to terminate the remaining two years of his contract "by mutual consent." Staunton offered no comment.

FAI president David Blood said Staunton and his assistant coaches, who were also being dismissed, "have brought through many young players and leave behind a squad with strong development potential."

It was an ignoble end for Staunton, a dogged defender who was Ireland's most-capped player and veteran of three World Cup campaigns. He described his surprise appointment to manage Ireland as his "dream job" and the greatest honor of his career.

His firing came six days after Ireland drew 1-1 at home to Cyprus. The result ensured that Ireland could not advance from Group D to next year's European finals -- the nation's third straight qualification failure.

Soccer analysts said Staunton appeared overwhelmed at times by the requirements of his job, and failed to forge a largely youthful team of British-based professionals into a credible, consistent unit.

"It's been a shambles," former FAI chief executive Brendan O'Byrne said.

Twenty-one months ago, after Ireland failed to qualify for last year's World Cup, the FAI unveiled Staunton as national manager -- and, unusually, former England coach Bobby Robson as his mentor.

"It was a flawed decision from the beginning," O'Byrne said. "I winced on the morning of the announcement when I heard there was going to be somebody beside him holding his hand. This was sending the signal that he really wasn't up to the job."

Staunton's Euro 2008 campaign was hampered by injuries to key players, his tendency to play inexperienced players in unfamiliar positions, and the 74-year-old Robson's recurring battle with cancer.

In his 17 matches in charge, Staunton amassed the poorest winning percentage -- 35 percent -- of any Ireland coach since the 1980s.

More than 16,000 ticket-holders didn't bother to attend the Cyprus match on Oct. 17, when the Irish equalized in injury time. Fans who stayed to the end booed and chanted for Staunton's dismissal.

Ireland has struggled in vain to return to its glory days under Jack Charlton, who led the Irish to their first World Cups in 1990 and 1994. Charlton resigned after Ireland narrowly failed to qualify for Euro 1996 in a playoff loss.

Mick McCarthy got Ireland to the second round of the 2002 World Cup, despite fighting a debilitating feud with ousted captain Roy Keane, but was axed after failing to qualify for Euro 2004. Brian Kerr amassed the best winning record of any Irish coach -- 55 percent -- but was replaced by Staunton after not reaching the World Cup last year.
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