Ireland's Staunton steps down

Steve Staunton has resigned as manager of the Republic of Ireland less than two years into his four-year contract after failing to reach UEFA EURO 2008™.

Board meeting
The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) are on the hunt for a new manager for the third time in five years after Staunton agreed to step down after only 21 months in charge at a meeting with the FAI's board of management on Tuesday, less than a week after a disappointing 1-1 UEFA EURO 2008™ qualifying draw at home against Cyprus.

'It hasn't worked'
"At the time of his appointment in January 2006, there were a number of examples of senior international players who had retired, like [Jürgen] Klinsmann and [Marco] van Basten, who were coaches and we felt that the combination of our most capped player with Bobby Robson would have brought us forward," said FAI chief executive John Delaney. "For whatever reasons, it hasn't worked as well as any of us would have hoped."

Harsh reaction
Staunton, who succeeded Brian Kerr, had a great start to his career as Ireland boss with a 3-0 win over Sweden, but the UEFA EURO 2008™ campaign was disappointing with only four wins in 11 games, two of them against San Marino. Delaney admitted that the reaction of the crowd to last week's 1-1 draw at home to Cyprus, where the Irish side were booed by sections of the 54,000 home support, was "the last straw for some people".

Caretaker role
Don Givens, currently manager of the Under-21 side, will take charge of the senior team as caretaker for their final Group D game, away to Wales on 17 November. The FAI have also revealed that they will ask a panel of "football professionals" such as former Ireland players and managers, to select the next manager for the national team.