CUT AND RUN
Delaney steps aside but FAI on defensive over loan
THE FAI are stubbornly refusing to play ball with the state on the mysterious €100,000 loan it received from former chief executive John Delaney.
Hours after Delaney ‘stepped aside’ as executive vice-president pending an independent review of the FAI’s finances, and directors Michael Cody and Eddie Murray resigned, the association snubbed the Dáil watchdog on Transport, Tourism and Sport.
In response to the question: ‘What was the category of payment and payment terms of the (€100k) creditor?’, posed last Wednesday by the Oireachtas Committee, interim FAI CEO Rea Walshe replied, ‘We confirm that this information is commercially sensitive.’
Asked why the €100k was not included in the monthly financial accounts, Walsh said ‘the €100,000 loan was accounted for in the balance sheet.’
The FAI also did not shed any light on who authorised the statements on March 17 and 18 that the Board were kept informed ‘at all times’ on the €100k loan.
The FAI’s blanket defence will hardly appease either the Oireachtas joint
AS FLAMES licked around Notre Dame yesterday, John Delaney’s reputation as Irish football’s most high profile administrator was also ablaze. He was toast.
Yet, even as he exited the Carlton Hotel at 4.42pm without an FAI title for the first time in 18 years, the sense of entitlement persisted for the shamed former CEO, executive vice-president, and treasurer.
Waiting to whisk him away somewhere safe was his FAI car and his FAI driver.
Delaney could have expressed regrets for his actions which have dumped the reputation of Irish football on a pyre; heck, he could even have joined Sportsmail on the 16 bus into town, but, true to his credit card character, he was reluctant to leave his world of privilege.
The scene of yesterday’s drama, on the old airport road in Clonshaugh, is about half a mile as the crow flies from the AUL grounds.
It was there on a cold December day in 1995 where Jack Charlton was summoned to meet the FAI hierarchy, including Delaney’s father Joe, to be told his time was up as Republic of Ireland manager.
That morning, I drove around north Dublin trying to find the location of the meeting, with no success. Yesterday, thanks to a tip-off, I was in position for Delaney’s last rites in Irish football as he was brought to book by his employers.
For years, the feeble board of directors meekly answered to him; yesterday, on foot of a €20m funding red card threat by Leo Varadkar, they found some backbone.
Delaney was called to the Boeing Suite in the third floor where his world crash-landed, although according to the FAI statement, he has not formally ‘resigned’, unlike fellow directors, Michael Cody and Eddie Murray.
Even so, Delaney walked into the Carlton Hotel as the most senior figure in Irish football and left with his backside in the bacon slicer.
The FAI press release stated that Delaney voluntarily ‘stepped aside’ as executive vice-president. For some, that suggests the door maybe ajar for a possible return to office for Delaney, only it won’t happen.
The external audit demanded by the government through Sport Ireland into the FAI’s financial affairs will uncover every detail of Delaney’s rule as chief executive, starting off with the €100,000 loan in 2017, which no one has yet clarified.
FAI insiders fear there is far more to come on top of Delaney’s €40,000 credit-card spend for six months in 2016, the deals with Marcus Evans Ltd for tickets at the World Cup finals, and the bountiful freebies for Aviva Stadium optics.
All investigations, internal and external, must run their course and Delaney will be asked to explain his actions. He can’t slip away unnoticed.
So far, he has been utterly unconvincing about his €100k loan to the FAI in 2017, which he held back from telling the majority of the FAI board — his employers — until forced to do when the story broke last month.
Even as recently as March 17 and March 18, while he was CEO, statements were issued that the FAI board were informed of the dig-out at all times, which was not the case. So, who approved this lie?
A part of Delaney must be wondering where it all went wrong, how he has blown his €365,000-ayear gig and his reputation? But he only has himself, and his runaway ego, to blame.
As Delaney awaits the scrutiny that is to come, the FAI replied ‘no comment’ yesterday when asked by Sportsmail if Delaney was still being paid by the FAI and if he still has their backing for the UEFA ExCo.
For now, attention turns to the return of Sports Minister Shane Ross and Sport Ireland chiefs to the Dáil watchdogs today, and where sits the prospect of a resumption of state funding for football.
But the funding tap turned off on Varadkar’s orders won’t be turned on again quickly — not until the State sees exactly what was happening under the grassroots of Irish football while Delaney was in charge.
Delaney could have bitten the bullet yesterday, apologised unreservedly, and resigned as FAI vicepresident and from the UEFA ExCo. But he chose to cling on.
It’s what those who are intoxicated by power and privilege tend to do.
Back in December 1995, Jack Charlton was is no mood to quit either, as Ireland manager.
He’d seen the draw for the 1998 World Cup and felt he’d like a crack at another qualification campaign.
It would have brought up 100 games as manager and 10 years in the job — only the FAI blazers didn’t play ball. They sensed Charlton’s time was up and stood up to him. Yesterday, the blazers found a wee spark again.
What a shame then that the president Donal Conway chose to sneak out the back entrance of the hotel yesterday, rather than face the cameras and walk through the foyer as Delaney, and other FAI directors, did.
A public expression of humility from Conway would have helped dous the bonfires. Since assuming office, Conway has repeatedly dodged the media.
It is not doing him, nor the sport he presides over, any favours.
‘He only has himself and his runaway ego to blame’