When the pressure came on him Delaney pulled out of the tackle

WHEN a person seems to believe they are made of chocolate there’s always the danger they will eat themselves, so it was hardly a surprise when John Delaney – a man who once did a four-page interview and accompanying documentary with Sunday Independent showbiz correspondent Barry Egan - devoured himself last week.

One could say that when The Sunday Times reported last month of the €100,000 cheque Delaney handed the FAI in 2017 when his employer was suffering a cashflow problem that journalist Mark Tighe peeled back the wrapper, but on Wednesday of last week it was Delaney who appeared to devour himself whole in front of the nation’s eyes.

For a man who built a career and a fortune out of pressing the flesh and being in the public eye it was the silence that roared. It was striking to see the former CEO of the Football Association of Ireland arrive at last week’s Oireachtas Committee hearing wearing his best UEFA jacket, read a prepared statement saying that he was precluded by legal advice from answering particular questions, and then zip his lip for the rest of the day and utter barely a word except to ask for a “comfort break”.

If The Sunday Times’ story was damning for Delaney and the FAI Board, it was the former CEO’s - and newly anointed Executive Vice-President no less - stance at the Oireachtas hearing that may well have signalled the end of his involvement in Irish soccer in any meaningful way.

Here was Delaney’s chance to be the leader he always tried to give the impression he was; to show the rest of us he was the man his buddies and lackeys and defenders always told us he was; to prove to the

nation - soccer lovers or not - that he really is a man of the people, a man for the game, a man of courage.

Instead he stood in the defensive wall and when the shot came at him he effectively closed his eyes, and turned his back to the ball. In his team’s toughest hour the great John Delaney - the passionate football man - pulled out of the tackle. What we had here was an incarnation of the modest, journeyman player he was 25 years ago when ‘Put It Out Delaney’ - as he was known when he played the game in Tralee – was known for hoofing the ball out over the sideline.

Of course, even the journeyman footballer finds it hard to leave the pitch for the very last time and so it is this week that Delaney clings to his place on the FAI team, albeit temporarily dropped as the relegation battle plays out in Abbotstown and the offices of Sports Ireland and in the Department of Sport and elsewhere.

Timing is everything in football and knowing when to go is usually the one move that players get wrong most often. In most cases it’s a genuine love of the game that sees most stay on longer than they really should, but in a minority of cases it’s pride that keeps them in the game. As the endgame has played out over the last couple of weeks Delaney has had ample opportunity to go out with some dignity, but it looks like this one is going into extra-time and penalties.

And if he holds on to his €160,000 gig with UEFA what then of his flunkies and his defenders around the country who have been at pains to tells us what a great football man John has been. And that whatever about the €100,000 cheque and the eye-watering credit card spend, ‘sure we wouldn’t have this pitch or that stand or the other all-weather without him’. Imagine the pride among his minions if they can crow that their man had actually outgrown Ireland and that the only place big enough for John’s special suite of talents is Europe. And what then? FIFA?

But you have to wonder about the good and the great who have been out to bat for Delaney this last week. The ones who have been telling us that such and such club or league wouldn’t have a pot to take a comfort break in but for Delaney’s benevolence and money. They’d actually lead you to believe that the former CEO was handing out his own cash for whatever local project in question.

Now some of his supporters believe that the state of local soccer in Ireland wouldn’t be where it is today without John the Baptist. Imagine if these geniuses could get their heads around to thinking how the game might actually have grown over the last 10 to 15 years without Dear John?

You’re sort of left with two views of the people out to bat for Delaney this week: either they don’t realise that when Delaney swooped in with a big cheque and even bigger smile for some local development project that he was actually handing them their own money; or that they see how he has ran the FAI and actually have a quiet regard for him and his ways. Either way, it looks like they backed the wrong horse this week.

Delaney is obviously a gregarious enough fellow, and clearly the consummate parish-pump politician, winning over an easily impressed fan-base with his larger-than-life presence on the chicken dinner circuit. He was as comfortable getting down with the proletariat out in the sticks as he was rubbing shoulders with the bourgeoisie in Nyon, Switzerland.

But then the chickens came home to roost.

When you take your eye off the ball mistakes are made, tackles are missed, the opposition senses a weakness and they go for the openings.

If you’ve read anything about this latest controversy enveloping the FAI you will be aware of the heavy scent of schadenfreude in much of the commentary, and while it’s not the most noble quality to display, in this instance it seems understandable.

For years Delaney and the FAI were not adverse to the threat of litigation whenever anyone in the media tried to ask particular probing questions about the Association’s finances or governance or modus operandi. The legal writs flowed from Abbotstown nearly as much as the free tickets for the Aviva did. But one day someone had enough. Mark Tighe’s investigative work with The Sunday Times has been outstanding but it will gall Delaney to know that Tighe could only have got his information from inside Abbotstown. Someone - either a one time loyalist or a disgruntled FAI employee - was pushed to breaking point and leaked info to the media. The very thing that the FAI tried to control for years was the very thing that started the beginning of the end.

When positive change comes to the FAI as it inevitably will now, and the game goes from strength to strength under new leadership, it would do well for people to know that the change didn’t come about because of anything the Department of Sport or its minister did, or because some gurning senator or TD bathed Delaney with praise that was nothing short of embarrassing. It will be because a journalist took on the cartel and displayed infinitely more courage than anyone on that FAI Board ever did and got to the heart of the matter.

This week Delaney is still clinging to the sinking ship, apparently trying to pull himself into a life-raft before the whole thing goes under. It seems he will try to ride it out and either hold on to some power within the FAI or, more likely, head off to UEFA and offer his unique talents to Europe’s top table. If that comes to pass Delaney will no doubt get the mother and father of all welcomes out there.

As for him getting the mother and father of all welcomes around this country? Well, there’s no accounting for taste but it looks like the full-time whistle has sounded.