Now Sport Ireland wants answers on Delaney loan to FAI
STATE agency Sport Ireland is seeking ‘urgent clarification’ from the Football Association of Ireland over a loan made to the organisation by its chief executive, John Delaney.
It wants to know as soon as possible why the FAI needed the money and why Sport Ireland was not notified, as is required.
‘Sport Ireland has written to the president of the Football Association of Ireland seeking urgent clarification from the board of the FAI on media reports concerning a loan to the organisation by its chief executive, including the circumstances of the loan and its repayment,’ it said.
The statement continued: ‘Sport Ireland was not notified at any stage in 2017 about any apparent material deterioration in the FAI’s financial position, as per Sport Ireland’s terms and conditions of grant approval, and has sought additional clarification in relation to this matter.’
Over the weekend, it was revealed that Mr Delaney had Scrutiny: CEO John Delaney given the FAI €100,000 in April 2017 in what he called a ‘bridging loan’. The money was paid back to Mr Delaney, who has been the CEO of the FAI for 13 years and had a salary of €360,000, in June of that year.
The FAI claimed that the loan was in the best interests of the organisation.
After news of the loan was reported at the weekend, Mr Delaney issued a statement saying that the payment was a short-term measure to solve a cashflow issue.
Mr Delaney said this was the only time he has provided the FAI with a short-term loan.
In a statement released by the FAI last night, the organisation said: ‘The Football Association of Ireland has this evening received correspondence from Sport Ireland CEO John Treacy on behalf of Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Shane Ross. We are currently preparing a reply to Mr Treacy and will respond at the earliest opportunity.’
News of the loan broke after Mr Delaney failed in his attempt to get an emergency injunction on Saturday to prevent the Sunday Times publishing details of the loan.
He had argued that the documents detailing the transactions came to light as a result of an in-camera family law case involving his ex-wife and that they should not be in the public domain.
However, the judge in the case ruled that there was a very clear public interest in publishing the material.
‘I am satisfied that the finances of the FAI and any payment and repayment to its chief executive are matters of significant public interest,’ the judge ruled.
One thing which is not clear, however, is why exactly the FAI needed the loan considering 2017 was a financially healthy year for the organisation. According to published accounts, the FAI had a surplus of €2.7million in 2017.
In those accounts there is a reference to short-term ‘Other Creditor Grants’ of €108,690 in 2017, which is separate from the organisation’s bank loans. The creditor grants are standard in its accounts and were up from €101,911 in ‘Other Creditor Grants’ in 2016.
The Irish Daily Mail found that in the same year Mr Delaney gave his loan, the FAI had international match income of €17.3million; commercial income of €16.9million; grants and subvention of €6.1million; income from courses of €6.1million and other income of €2.4million. It said value of sponsorship, which also ran into the millions, was not included in the overall figure.
In 2017, the FAI also received millions in government grants, including €2.7million from Sport Ireland.
€2.7m Sport Ireland funding