FAI STILL IN CRISIS WITH A LOT IN THE AIR
ASKED on Friday if he was purging himself by continuing as FAI president, Donal Conway replied dryly: ‘I’m an atheist.’ ‘I don’t mean to be facetious,’ he continued quickly. ‘I don’t see it as purging. The outstanding motivation for me is pragmatism. ‘Look, I’ve been around this place for a long time. I’ve been basically working full-time since March and for a number of months I feel I can be helpful to a transition to a better FAI.’
That ‘transition’, which the FAI board that Conway was part of, tried to suppress, is dragging its studs across the Irish football landscape.
Former CEO John Delaney may have left the building, with a juicy compensation package, but the promised reforms are inching along, and many questions remain unanswered.
Here are the most pressing. Where are the four independent directors for the new board?
Where is the Sport Council’s external audit of accountants, Kosi? Where is the FAI’s internal review from Mazars?
How long before the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) shed light on their investigations?
What are the FAI doing to restore government funding, cut off since April?
The latest embarrassment for the FAI was disclosed on Friday when the FAI Council were told the Revenue Commissioners had sought an audit over the FAI’s VAT and PAYE returns for two years.
It seems for every attempt to move forward from the ‘s**t storm’, as Noel Mooney described it on his arrival in May, the FAI are being dragged back to the past.
Mooney’s six-month stint as general manager is almost up and he will ‘fall on his little sword’ to appease his antagonist, Sports Minister Shane Ross, by clearing his desk on November 30.
As for Conway, he stands on the bridge, in stubborn defiance of Ross, for the moment.
‘If a Minister comes out and says “Everything is going great, the milestones you talked about, the independent directors, and we are on the point of resuming funding and now one last little thing, this gentleman must go”, I’m not going to stop funding being restored to the FAI,’ he said.
Conway thanked Mooney at Friday’s FAI Council meeting for his contribution but was unable to shed light on who will take over as interim CEO on December 1.
Paul Cooke, the FAI vice-president who has forged a strong alliance with Conway, would seem a ready-made replacement as a hard-nosed businessman who knows football.
‘I haven’t been asked,’ Cooke laughed on Friday. Why not?
Cooke’s goal is to reduce the FAI’s debt, and enable the association to stand on its own two feet rather than rely on UEFA hand-outs.
He is involved in overseeing the presentation of the 2018 accounts at the re-convened AGM and warned of ‘shocks’ in store.
‘We’re working on a detailed financial plan. We had Grant Thornton here at eight o’clock working out a financial strategy to ensure we don’t need UEFA support after a certain period of time.
‘We don’t want 10 years. We don’t want two. We want to get to a situation where this organisation operates on what it takes in the door and what it pays out, it lives within its means.’
There is a lighter mood on the working farm of Abbotstown these days. The fear factor which prevailed in the Delaney era, when people avoided eye contact, is gone. Employees stop for a cup of tea and a chat.
Conway accepted that Delaney had ‘too much power’, that staff members were jittery during his time in charge, and the ‘old culture’ reflected poorly on the board of directors.
‘If you were an employee or your life in the FAI was going to be determined if you took the wrong stance, then I think a person may have been fearful of what the consequences might have been then.’
‘The old culture was not sufficiently transparent, not sufficiently open, individuals who disagreed with certain people suffered for that, for asking questions, for voicing disagreements. That was a poor reflection on the board and a really bad culture. That culture has to fundamentally change,’ he said.
Conway confirmed Delaney’s contracts, including his 2014 renewal as CEO which included the infamous seven-figure golden handshake, were never shown to the board.
Nor did, he as a board member, ask to see them.
On March 23, in Gibraltar, Conway was part of the FAI strategy to protect Delaney when he said in a statement that ‘John has transformed how we operate as an association.’
Seven months later, he admitted, ‘I would regret that phrase, to be frank.’
‘It was referencing issues like moving from Merrion Square to here (Abbotstown), the (Aviva) Stadium and all that.’
The stadium? Delaney’s ill-fated Vantage Club idea has saddled the FAI with a lorry-load of debt.
As Conway continues at the helm, for the moment, Mooney is getting ready to set sail for Nyon to be with his wife and baby son Sean, having stated on Friday he will not be in the running for the CEO.
His stint as general manager was mixed. His door was open and he was contactable 24/7 but he made a mess of trying to entice Brian Kerr back into FAI favour.
As did Conway, who should have picked up the telephone and personally apologised for the 14 years of hurt inflicted by the Delaney regime.
On Wednesday night, Mooney invited Neal Horgan, a former Cork City colleague, to Abbotstown to launch his book, ‘The Cross Roads’. The sub-title read, ‘Rise Of The Rebel Army And Crisis At The FAI.’
For all the baby-steps, the crisis in Irish football is far from over.
‘WE ARE WORKING ON A DETAILED FINANCIAL PLAN NOW’