Ministers told to use OCI as a template for handling the FAI
MINISTERS have been advised to use their response to the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) tickets scandal at the 2016 Rio Olympics as a template for managing the current FAI crisis.
Internal correspondence at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport seen by the Sunday Independent shows senior officials advised ministers to take a measured approach before considering restoring funding to the FAI.
They cited the OCI (now known as the Olympic Federation of Ireland) as an example to follow.
Sport Ireland suspended State funding to the FAI earlier this year in the wake of controversy surrounding finances and corporate governance at the association, after it emerged that former chief executive John Delaney gave it a €100,000 loan in 2017. This sparked a chain of events that eventually led to Delaney resigning from the FAI last month. Its financial support from Sport Ireland remains suspended.
In 2016, Sport Ireland suspended funding to the OCI after its then-president Pat Hickey was arrested and detained by Brazilian police amid allegations of ticket touting at the Olympic Games.
This funding was only restored in September 2017, one year after it was suspended.
New correspondence obtained under the Freedom of Information Act shows how senior officials at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport kept ministers aware of developments at the FAI since its funding was suspended.
In July, Peter Hogan, a principal officer in the department, wrote to ministers Shane Ross and Brendan Griffin following a conversation he had with Sport Ireland chief executive John Treacy.
Hogan said it was heartening to see the FAI commit to a programme of change and greater gender balance but advised the ministers that a cautious approach was necessary to handle the crisis.
“It would not be prudent to rush any decisions in relation to the restoration of funding,” Hogan wrote.
“A careful and pragmatic approach to restoration of funding was very effective in relation to the Olympic Council of Ireland, and I believe it would also produce the desired outcome in this case.”
The association is now the subject of a number of internal and external audits, including an inquiry by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement.
The first of these audits by Northern Irish firm KOSI was due to be completed earlier this month and presented to Sport Ireland.
However, the firm asked for additional time to weigh up the impact Delaney’s resignation would have on the FAI’s finances.
A significant portion of the KOSI report is expected to focus on the future financing of the association.
A source told the Sunday Independent that restoration of funding was unlikely to happen until many of the audits and reports had been considered.