‘Political football’ fear over €30m FAI bailout
Government officials fretted about pre-election rescue deal, documents show
SENIOR Government officials raised concern about the optics of bailing out the FAI as the general election loomed earlier this year, according to new documents showing how the embattled association was rescued from financial ruin.
Internal correspondence obtained by the Sunday Independent shows the reallocation of public money to the FAI sparked concern that senior officials could be seen to be interfering in politics in the run-up to February’s vote.
The documents give a new insight into how a financial rescue package was thrashed out with a series of meetings between ministers, high-ranking officials, advisers and delegates from Uefa, the FAI, League of Ireland clubs, Bank of Ireland and union representatives.
A thread of emails and meeting notes also show government support was deemed vital in order to facilitate the FAI’s survival.
In the meeting notes, Transport Minister Shane Ross tells union representatives that Uefa, European football’s governing body, learnt “some lessons” regarding its oversight of member associations on the back of a series of scandals that engulfed the FAI.
Meeting notes from engagements with League of Ireland clubs show they lobbied Ross for increased funding from sports betting. Representatives from several clubs met the minister at the start of January expressing concern about the FAI’s future.
They told him “30pc of bets placed in Ireland are on football matches or competitions and so a portion of the betting tax — currently allocated to horse and greyhound racing — should be provided to football”.
Representatives from the clubs accused the Government of seeing football as “self-funding” and called for greater support to develop the league.
Niall Quinn has since been appointed interim deputy chief executive at the FAI and echoed these calls.
However, much of the tranche of new documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act highlight how the Government rescued the FAI with a series of behind-the-scenes meetings and communications.
At the end of January, the Government agreed to provide €19.2m in new funding to the FAI via grants and an interest-free loan. More funding, in excess of €10m, was made up of increased supports from Uefa and a restructuring of FAI bank debts.
Three weeks earlier, when Goodbody Stockbrokers managing director Roy Barrett was appointed FAI chairman, Ross wrote to him offering congratulations and assurances that the Government was willing to support the association but “cannot and will not ‘bail out’ the FAI.”
On January 14, Ross met with Uefa officials who were in Dublin to hold talks with a number of banks and key stakeholders. A memo shows the minister described the talks as “much more amicable than expected”. Ross had previously been critical of the European body, while Uefa had earlier expressed concern about political interference in Irish football.
On January 23 the minister and Barrett met at the Marker Hotel in Dublin with Department of Transport officials. Notes from the meeting show that Ross asked the FAI chair if Uefa could make a greater contribution to the rescue package so the burden on Government would be reduced.
A memo shows Barrett said the Government participating in the “joint financial rescue” was the right thing to do.
Meeting notes show Barrett described the support as “modest and small” in the context of underinvestment by government in the game over a long period. He also “emphasised that government is the fundamental part of the jigsaw — restoration of funding would have a positive impact on Uefa, whose support is vital to Bank of Ireland”, the notes state.
At the same meeting, Ross’s special adviser Aisling Dunne “highlighted the political context to the discussion and the need to avoid the narrative that the FAI is receiving a bailout from government”. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar called the general election just nine days earlier and Dunne said this was “a sensitive time where concerns are heightened in this regard”.
This view was enforced by the department’s secretary general, Graham Doyle, on the eve of the rescue package being announced.
He wrote to Ross on January 29 warning that officials should not be “in a position where they may be judged to be engaging in anything beyond what is necessary to inform the public”. The missive was also sent to the minister’s advisers and other senior officials.
Dunne replied: “We are acutely aware of the need for caution during the election period” but there was a need to inform the public of the new arrangement with the FAI.