‘It’s privatisation of football in Ireland by stealth’
Ministers back chairman in toxic row over board seats
THE FAI is in danger of becoming privatised if proposed reforms surrender boardroom control to non-football directors. The stark warning came from Fianna Fáil TD Marc MacSharry last night who called on his Government colleagues to ‘reverse’ the small print in the Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) signed as part of a financial rescue deal for the FAI. Hours after Minister of Sport Catherine Martin and Minister of State Dara Calleary stood by the ‘absolute essential’ details of the MoU, which would see directors outside football assume control of the FAI, MacSharry broke party ranks. He took aim at what he called ‘the Shane Rosssponsored majority of nonfootball directors of the association, which is contrary to FIFA and UEFA statutes.’ ‘I am calling on the Government to urgently reverse this situation. ‘In my opinion, it is the privatisation of football in Ireland by stealth,’ said MacSharry. Under the Ross-FAI deal, the current eight-four split on the board will become sixsix, which would wrench power from the football side
Dissident directors want to kick change into long grass
ROY BARRETT holds the high ground after the latest battle for power in Irish football but he has yet to win the civil war which is erupting on his watch.
Barrett is chairperson of an 11-strong FAI board that has been cleaved open on the spit of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed off with the Government as part of a rescue deal for the FAI last January.
Like a boil, the festering MoU has gradually built up with puss and many feel it needs to be lanced if Irish football is to avoid a status akin to the ‘privatisation of football’, as warned by Fianna Fáil TD Marc MacSharry last night.
The eight elected directors from the football side of the boardroom, headed by president Gerry McAnaney, had the means, motive and opportunity to strike a stiletto into the pustule.
They had the tools to seek an urgent meeting with the new Government, to call for a review of the MoU; at worst, to ask for a delay in its implementation, chiefly the provision of six independent directors on the 12-person board.
The directors drafted a letter for the attention of Taoiseach Micheál Martin, and Ministers Catherine Martin and Dara Calleary, detailing concerns about the MoU and its implications for Irish football.
They included a grim prediction about the FAI becoming an outlier across domestic sporting organisations and other federations across the world should power be ceded to directors from outside football.
They warned about the need to avoid an embarrassment at the EGM needed to change the rules of the Constitution — a 75% vote in favour is required to approve the terms of the MoU.
The letter also welcomed the opportunity to meet with the Ministers with a view to discussing a compromise. Essentially, the dissident directors wanted to kick the six versus six recommendation into the long grass.
But they got jittery.
Rather than email the letter, and sign it individually as directors of the FAI, they sought a united front as a board.
This was a tactical error. As soon as Barrett saw the letter, he shot it down, and insisted the matter required a meeting of the directors.
The directors, who could have pressed ahead with the initiative, sought legal advice over their strategy. By the time they popped their heads out yesterday, the strongly-worded letter of support for the MoU from Martin and Calleary was winging its way to Abbotstown.
After reports in these pages of the testy board-room exchanges on Tuesday night following the disclosure that McAnaney and vice-president Paul Cooke had spoken to UEFA, it seemed a coincidence that the Department of Sport should come out strongly in support of the MoU.
Were they lobbied? Barrett told the board last night he had no contact with the Department of Sport or the Minister of Sport. Yet, the support he sought was most timely.
The letter, signed jointly by Martin and Calleary, was balm to Barrett and the two other independent directors, Catherine Guy and Liz Joyce.
It read: ‘The new Government has no intention of entering any discussion with the FAI or other stakeholders on the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding signed in January by then Minister Shane Ross.’
‘The conditions set out in the
MoU are absolutely essential and we would encourage the Board, the FAI Council and the broader membership of the association to redouble their efforts to implement these conditions in full.’
The message from Leeson Lane was firm and unequivocal: if the FAI wants State money, vote for the changes to your rulebook at your EGM, or else.
Barrett, with Guy and Joyce at his flanks, and interim CEO Gary Owens and interim Deputy CEO Niall Quinn also riding shotgun, is committed to implementing the terms of the MoU.
Within the letter from Martin and Calleary was a caveat for those who may cry foul.
‘While there are likely to be some within your membership who would be opposed to these changes, to safeguard the future of the association and the livelihoods of its employees it is important that going forward best practice corporate governance is implemented across the association,’ says the Ministers’ letter.
Barrett has ammunition but will it be enough to deliver the MoU on a plate for the State?
McSharry won’t have a vote but he has a say and last night he declared a majority of ‘non football directors of the association’ was ‘a betrayal’ and also predicted the terms of the MoU, if approved, would lead to ‘the privatisation of football in Ireland by stealth.’
Not only is the FAI riddled by in-fighting at the highest level, it remains without State funding to keep the show on the road.