Transformative Sarah Keane has been approached for FAI top job
OFI president chief executive Sarah Keane at the women's 400m final. Pic ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne
Sarah Keane, CEO of Swim Ireland and president of the Olympic Federation of Ireland (OFI), has confirmed that she has been approached about the vacant chief executive’s role at the FAI.
The football body is in the market for a new boss after Jonathan Hill, the man who replaced John Delaney in the hot seat, finished what proved to be a disappointing and curtailed three-and-a-half-year term in the role back at the end of April.
Keane was a leading contender for the role prior to Hill’s appointment and the continuing bad press that the FAI has generated in the years since Delaney’s departure demonstrates the need for a much steadier and more capable hand on the tiller.
It is maybe the most difficult challenge in Irish sports administration but Keane has previous in cleaning up a mess having taken over the president’s role with Ireland’s Olympic movement in the wake of Pat Hickey’s demise.
Keane was front and centre in the rebranding of the old Olympic Council of Ireland to the OFI and utterly revolutionising its culture and its day-to-day operations. She is also CEO of the governing body that brought home most Olympic medals to this country from Paris.
Daniel Wiffen claimed a gold and a bronze while Mona McSharry won another bronze. Ellen Walshe reached a final and there were four more semi-final places. This in a sport that once considered a single semi-final swim a major success.
“Yeah, I've been approached, which is all I'll say,” said Keane over the weekend as Team Ireland’s hectic and successful 2024 Olympics began to wind down. “I haven't made any decisions about anything.
“My focus has been on the OFI chair. I find that people say to me, ‘what are you going to do next time’ and I'm like, ‘okay, I have a day job and I have kids and I'm sitting on the European and World Aquatics on the central board’.”
Keane is due to step down from her OFI role at the end of the year. It is, she said, time for new skills and new people to take the organisation on to the next chapter. She has been a transformational leader. And the FAI badly needs transforming.
