Former Celtic goalkeeper, Pat Bonner, is a legend of the club in the eyes of the Celtic support. Certainly in my time growing up, Bonner was one of my idols alongside Peter Grant and Paul McStay.
After retiring from football, Bonner moved into the management side of the game and was Tommy Burns’ Assistant Manager at Reading for 2 years before continuing his career in the Football Association of Ireland (FAI).
The former Hoops hero revealed he still has a role within the Association and explained his past and current roles within the Irish Governing body for football.
Bonner said [Celtic YouTube], “I’m on the board of the FAI at the moment which is interesting as kind of an independent director. You know, not hands-on anymore. I used to be the Technical Director over there which was a brilliant job.
“I’ve been away from that for 10 years. But now I’m back on the board and we have a big job to do there. The ladies team is now of course in the World Cup start starting just this week and that’ll be interesting to see how they do.”
As Bonner alluded to, he was a Technical Director in the FAI for which he was responsible for the rollout of over 20 programmes that covered the development of Grassroots, Education and Women’s Football in Ireland.
He was made redundant in 2010 due to the association getting into financial difficulties [Irish Examiner]. And as a condition of a financial rescue package from the Irish Government, the FAI had to appoint two independent directors to the board and Bonner was chosen for one of the roles.
The Republic of Ireland legend is best known now for his punditry role on BBC Sportsound and still works with UEFA as an advisor on coach education and is a director of P Bonner Performance Limited [LinkedIn].
In other news, Celtic make Flag Day announcement; Paradise set for opening day celebrations
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