Legal action a reminder of how football got itself in such a mess
CRISIS mode has become the default setting for Irish football. The Covid-19 pandemic has placed the Football Association of Ireland’s (FAI) new powerbrokers into the eye of another storm.
Angry letters from St Patrick’s Athletic owner Garrett Kelleher and from various members of the FAI Council have raised questions about the work of interim CEO Gary Owens and his deputy Niall Quinn.
The FAI is in the midst of a restructuring plan with long-term implications for the workforce, and has advertised for a new permanent CEO.
Yet the FAI is relying on relief support from the Government and Fifa to negotiate the choppy waters in which it is in danger of becoming submerged.
Board members are stalling on providing a cash guarantee to facilitate the return of the League of Ireland season because they want to be certain it doesn’t pose problems for the association further down the tracks.
With so many new problems to deal with, the news that Abbotstown officials are initiating legal action against Deloitte is effectively a throwback to the reason they are in this mess.
While the FAI is trying to move forward and somehow get on a secure footing for the future, questions linger over how it ended up on the brink of insolvency and required a bailout in January with the assistance of the State, Uefa and the banks.
To some, restoring public trust is inextricably linked with getting to the heart of what actually unfolded in the John Delaney era.
The former CEO officially departed the scene last September with a severance package worth in the region of €500,000.
It remains a sore point for those people employed in Irish football who attach their struggles to the mistakes of the previous hierarchy.
They were hoping that the Mazars report and enquiries by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) would shine a light on the events of the past decade.
Yet the early ODCE foray into FAI affairs met with difficulty over the status of documents and the powers of legal privilege. It was a reminder that this would be a slow process.
Similarly, it’s understood the new FAI board’s move as regards Deloitte is influenced by considerations of time.
The FAI is alleging “a breach of contract” in the claim against its former auditors and the statute of limitations is a factor in such cases.
In other words, the FAI had to set the wheels in motion now.
Nobody can say with certainty that the current board will even be in situ when the matter comes up for further consideration.
For the FAI, the road towards any form of closure is set to be long and winding.
The FAI had to set the wheels in motion now