Delaney steps aside ...for now

Former chief steps aside from FAI as TDS call for board to go

JOHN Delaney ignored calls to quit last night as he offered to step aside while the FAI’S financial affairs are investigated.

The former chief executive yesterday told an emergency meeting of the association of the move.

But the pressure was mounting on the FAI over the fallout following the revelation Mr Delaney gave the soccer body a €100,000 loan.

The Oireachtas Sports Committee will meet this morning where TDS including Sinn Fein’s Imelda Munster, Fianna Fail’s Robert Troy and committee chairman, Fine Gael’s Fergus O’dowd, will all demand change at the top.

Ms Munster told the Irish Mirror: “It’s not enough for Mr Delaney to leave his post, the entire board must now consider their positions.

“I think with the farcical carry-on at committee last week, I think there’s an onus on Sport Ireland to have as part of the conditions of the funding being restored the board be replaced, because last week we saw the entire board present a united front.

“We now urgently need to see root and branch reform of the FAI under the direction of a new board.”

Mr Troy told RTE’S Sean O’rourke Show yesterday he believes it is “agreed across the political spectrum” the entire FAI board should quit.

And Des Casey, who was president of the association from 1984 to 1986, called on the board to consider stepping aside. He said: “Each and every one of the board should consider their position.”

Sport Ireland gives millions to the FAI on behalf of the taxpayer every year, and in a statement to the committee expected to be read out this morning, it will announce strict conditions for funding to be restored to the FAI.

The second round of a total €2.7milion due to be drawn down this year by the association was suspended last week. Sport Ireland feels it has been stonewalled in their quest for answers regarding the FAI’S accounts.

Yesterday’s dramatic events for Irish soccer came to a head just before 6pm with a statement from the FAI officially announcing Mr Delaney’s departure.

They had just come out of an emeralso gency meeting where he had addressed the board. He told them he was stepping aside from his newly-created position of executive vice-president. Mr Delaney had only been in this position for a week after the controversy over his undisclosed €100,000 loan to the FAI forced him from his role as chief executive.

FAI chiefs wrote to the Sports Committee last night offering some answers to outstanding questions over the €100,000 loan.

They claimed it could be seen in one account, but not in another area of the accounts.

The letter said: “The €100,000 loan was accounted for in the balance sheet. Balance sheet accounts are reviewed on a monthly basis.

“The transaction did not affect the profit and loss account of the association.”