JUST GO NOW – ALL OF YOU!
THERE were clamouring calls last night for John Delaney and the entire board of the Football Association of Ireland to resign.
The backlash resulted from his decision, after a meeting with the FAI, to step aside but not resign from the Association.
Many of Mr Delaney’s most vocal critics feel the offer from the former CEO to ‘voluntarily step aside’ pending the completion of an independent investigation leaves the door open for his return.
The FAI said last night Mr Delaney had volunteered to step aside from his role ‘with immediate effect pending the completion of an independent investigation by the association into issues of concern to the board’.
It also released very limited responses to a series of questions asked by members of the Oireachtas sports committee last Wednesday, in which it said that its repayment of a €100,000 loan to Mr Delaney was ‘commercially sensitive’.
There are now at least three reviews being carried out at the association since it emerged that the former CEO had given the FAI a €100,000 ‘bridging loan’ in 2017, and Sport Ireland last week moved to suspend its funding. It was also confirmed last night that two members of the board – honorary secretary Michael Cody and honorary treasurer Eddie Murray – voluntarily resigned.
However, Mr Delaney’s decision to temporarily step aside has prompted renewed calls for him to leave the FAI.
Sinn Féin TD Imelda Munster, who sits on the Oireachtas sports committee, said the statement from the FAI outlines a scenario which ‘leaves the door open, it leaves them an option he doesn’t deserve’.
The Louth TD said: ‘John Delaney should go and he should take the board with him out the door. There should be no option of a door left half open for John Delaney at this stage.
‘If we are ever to restore trust and confidence and the reputation of the FAI as an organisation, that’s what needs to be done.
‘He needs to go. The condition for State funding should be that the board must go.
‘There is nobody who has confidence in the board as it currently is at this stage, given the fiasco over the last couple of weeks and the lack of adherence to good governance and accountability.
‘And if they were genuinely interested in undoing the damage to the reputation of the organisation, then that is precisely what they should do.’
Fine Gael TD Fergus O’Dowd, who chairs the Oireachtas Sports Committee, last night told the Irish Daily Mail he believes Mr Delaney, the FAI’s executive vicepresident, and its board all need to resign. He said: ‘I think there should be a fresh start made and I think that is what the nation wants, and I think that is the best option for sport in my view.
‘It is as clear as mud what actually happened with the €100,000. The committee are no wiser now than we were a week ago ... clearly the best thing they can do is resign and move on.’
And Fine Gael TD Noel Rock, who has long been a critic of the FAI, said last night’s response to the fiasco from the FAI was not enough and Mr Delaney’s offer to voluntarily step aside pending the outcome of an investigation was ‘more obstinacy and fudge’.
‘He is still trying to stay on the squad, if not the pitch,’ the Dublin North-West TD said.
‘Will the FAI still be paying his salary while he has stepped aside temporarily?’
The FAI would not clarify last night if Mr Delaney he will be paid during this period.
Sports Minister Shane Ross added to the mounting pressure on the embattled association at the weekend as he said the FAI will ‘have to have their corporate governance in order if they are to get a penny more’ of State funds.
Michael Cody , 79, has been the honorary secretary of the organisation since 2004 and he resigned from the board last night with immediate effect. Mr Cody was the only other current board member who was aware of the ‘bridging loan’ transaction in 2017.
Eddie Murray, also 79, was the Association’s treasurer until his resignation last night, and he was unaware of the €100,000 transaction until recently.
The board of the FAI met yesterday afternoon in a hotel near Dublin Airport and ‘following that meeting, the sub-committee of the board met with’ Mr Delaney.
The FAI statement said the board also mandated that the sub-committee – which was set up to review governance and recently ‘publicised’ financial transactions – to ‘press ahead with their work as a matter of urgency’.
Last night, the FAI finally gave its responses to questions asked at last Wednesday’s sports committee hearing, telling Oireachtas members that, at the time of John Delaney’s €100,000 loan in 2017, it had ‘utilised all available funding across its bank accounts’.
It answered several questions posed by TDs at last Wednesday’s committee hearing, including a query from Sinn Féin’s Jonathan O’Brien, who asked why the loan wasn’t including in the FAI’s monthly accounts. ]
It said that €100,000 was accounted for in the organisation’s balance sheet, but didn’t say for what period.
‘Balance sheet accounts are reviewed by the finance team on a monthly basis. The transaction did not affect the profit and loss account of the Association,’ it said.
‘And he should take the board with him’ ‘Will the FAI still pay his salary?’