If FAI wants money, it must provide answers

THE Taoiseach weighed in yesterday on the failure of FAI executives to answer questions put before them by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Sport in relation to corporate governance at the association and, particularly, the bizarre €100,000 loan to it by then chief executive John Delaney.

Mr Varadkar is correct in three respects. Like every football fan in the country, the people who buy the tickets and the shirts and follow their teams through thick and thin, he declared himself dissatisfied with the stonewalling of the committee by the FAI when straight answers were what was required.

Equally, he also was correct to point out that since John Delaney is not a public servant, he is under no legal obligation to answer questions, though most surely would agree he at least had a moral obligation to do so.

Finally, though, Mr Varadkar was correct to point out, as our award-winning columnist Philip Nolan wrote in this paper yesterday, that with €2.9million in funding to the FAI now frozen by Sport Ireland, there is a unique opportunity to insist on reform.

As the Taoiseach said, John Delaney and the FAI might not have to answer to an Oireachtas committee, but if they want their funding back, they certainly will have to answer every question asked by Sport Ireland.

This presents a once-in-a lifetime opportunity to insist the FAI adheres to normal standards of management and governance and becomes truly accountable, as every public body in receipt of public finding of any kind should be.

Most importantly, his intervention sends a clear signal that there is political support for Sport Ireland to run with the ball and reach its goal of bringing the FAI to heel.