DELANEY QUITS FAI GIG (BUT NOT UEFA ROLE)
After weeks of speculation and a ‘horribly bad’ Oireachtas performance the soccer boss is exiting the FAI
SOCCER boss John Delaney is leaving his job with the FAI – but will continue in his role with UEFA.
Other under-pressure board members are also expected to step aside from their positions in the coming weeks.
At a meeting yesterday, the controversial former CEO indicated he would step away from the newly created role of executive vice president.
The final terms of his departure have yet to be finalised, according to sources, although this is expected to happen as early as today.
One said: ‘He didn’t have to be asked to go. He sensed the mood in the room and acted accordingly. There was no vote as such but it was clear to him that he would have lost had it gone to that.
‘The thing that really swung it against him was his performance in front of the Oireachtas committee – and specifically that he had put far too much pressure on FAI president Donal Conway.’
The source continued: ‘By refusing, under legal advice, to answer any questions after reading out a prepared statement the optics looked horribly bad, and since that meeting the pressure had been subtly mounting on John.
‘Basically people felt that he had gone a step too far this time and that the withdrawal of the Sport Ireland funding was a result of that. Nobody directly told him to go – he had his homework done. He
‘He said he could sense mood was against him’
stood up and thanked everyone in the room for their support over the years but admitted he could sense the mood was against him and announced he was prepared to do the honourable thing.’
Kerry District League secretary John O’Regan, a long-term backer of the controversial soccer supremo, told the Irish Mail on Sunday that Mr Delaney had sent him a text ‘saying he was stepping down from the FAI but that he would be staying on with UEFA’.
As senior FAI officials were locked in ongoing discussions yesterday, a source said: ‘There are moves afoot and there are discussions going on, and there are two points under discussion. One is his contract when he went from CEO to becoming executive vice president – that has to be resolved.
‘And the second point is the utilisation of John’s influence to sustain the FAI, UK, Scotland and Wales bid for the World Cup and to ensure that whatever influence he has with UEFA, that this can be protected. However, talks are also about him having no active role in the FAI going forward.’
Another source familiar with the ongoing talks said: ‘The FAI board met in Abbotstown all Friday night and all day today [Saturday]. There are a lot of decent people working for the FAI and we are being battered. People can’t take much more s **** . I hope the whole lot of them go.’
Meanwhile, an FAI source said: ‘John is on a serious contract with UEFA and he is on a serious wedge. Believe it or not he is very well regarded internationally and he is on some serious committees. Speculation has started as to who will succeed him in the FAI. No one knew that €3,000 a month was being paid by the FAI for Delaney’s rental home. He was getting in rent money, what FAI regional development officers earn in a year.’
There was also growing speculation last night about whether FAI honorary secretary Michael Cody and honorary treasurer Eddie Murray would also leave the board. Mr Cody is the only current board member to have known about Mr Delaney’s €100,000 loan to his employers at the time, in 2017, along with then-president Tony Fitzgerald. Meanwhile Mr Murray’s failure to know about the payment, despite his position, has caused his role to also be questioned. His own shaky appearance at Wednesday’s Oireachtas meeting has apparently sealed his fate. A source said: ‘To me it looks like there are two board members facing the bullet.’
When details of the loan were exposed last month, the 51-year-old was demoted as CEO to become executive vice president. This new position was not advertised.
His salary was cut from €360,000 to €160,000 but his pay for work on the international soccer scene was not affected. As a member of Europe’s soccer governing body UEFA, he receives €160,000 salary plus €300 daily expenses while carrying out UEFA duties.