Scott moves on to national FAI role

By Shane Brophy

North Tipperary’s loss is Ireland’s gain after it was announced that James Scott would be moving from his role as FAI Development Officer in the region.

The Pouldine native, who has been in the role for almost thirteen years, is moving to a full-time role with the Football Association of Ireland, dealing with women’s player development, on top of his current role as Head Coach of the Republic of Ireland Under 17 squad.

However, he will be a huge loss locally as he helped develop the game, particularly at underage level where the playing numbers in both boys and girls level developing exponentially over the last decade or so.

“The girl’s game, the numbers are unbelievable at the moment,” he said.

“That’s probably the proudest thing with the job I am going into. 45% of the NTSFL players are female.”

In terms of growing participation, when Scott first took up the role in February 2008, only ten schools took part in competitions in Tipperary, as of last year it was 130.

The period has also seen many boys and girls go onto play at international level which has given James immense satisfaction.

“One of the big highlights for me was being involved with the Under 16 Boys when we won the Victory Shield and Barry Coffey was there,” Scott said.

“It felt like the coming together of everything at that level as a coach, and then having a player you would have seen coming through beside it.

“Obviously, Barry (Coffey) is doing well and is not too far away at Celtic.”

James is moving to a full-time role in the FAI at a time when the women’s game is thriving, with players on the international senior team becoming household names, despite narrowly missing out on qualifying for the European Championships, and it is one of Scott’s ambitions that they make a major tournament in the near future.

“The big thing now is, like the men in Euro 88 and Italia 90, we need that big moment to really take off,” he said.

“But the popularity of women’s sport and women’s football in particular is really flying.

“Whereas before I ask girls who their favourite player is, it would be Ronaldo or Messi, now it is Katie McCabe and Denise O’Sullivan. Denise O’Sullivan is one of the top players in the world. I was reading FourFourTwo (magazine) last month and she was rated number eleven in the world, so they have people to aspire to be.

“The women’s game is becoming more professional now so whereas a few years ago a girl might want to be a professional footballer, but they’d have to do a lot to get there, including getting their education which still is number one, but now you can play at a very high level as a woman and be in a full-time position.”

The Development Officer role is a paid partnership between the FAI and regional authorities and James Scott is thankful for the support of North Tipperary County Council and Tipperary County Council over the past thirteen years.

“All the councillors were massive supporters because every three years when it would come to renewing my contract and I don’t think I ever had anyone question whether they were getting value for money, so I really appreciate all their help,” he said.

Scott’s successor has yet to be announced with the FAI likely to publicise an advertisement for the role in the coming weeks.