FAI’S ROCK BOTTOM
Change at last?
‘THE INABILITY OF CONWAY TO APOLOGISE IS AS SHOCKING AS THE DEBT’
IT was deep into the second half of Black Friday when Paul Cooke, the unpaid interim FAI executive, was asked to assess John Delaney’s legacy as CEO. Cooke paused for a moment, which is unusual for him as he’s a rapid-fire talker. ‘That’s a very good question, I’m not sure. I’m not sure what his legacy is. I mean, I’m looking here today, it’s a very dark day.’
The follow-up was straightforward: ‘Was John Delaney good for Irish football?
This time, Cooke didn’t hesitate. ‘I think the figures today speak for themselves,’ he said.
Dark didn’t do the day justice. It was two hours of Stygian gloom as the soul of the sport was stripped of jersey, socks and shorts. Boys in Green? More like gangrene.
For some veteran media observers of the FAI, there was a sense of familiarity as Cooke and president Donal Conway held court to disclose the many FAI problems.
Because we’ve been on this road to Calvary before, the scandals, the clear-outs, the wringing of hands, the vow to make things different.
Nothing has changed and the FAI just stumble from one crisis to another.
They are the San Andreas Fault of football authorities, a shift or two from earthquake and catastrophe.
It’s almost 24 years since internal turmoil ravaged Merrion Square and Sean Connolly, the general secretary, provoked a series of resignations among the executive, which led to the ‘The Night of the Long Knives’.
That infamous Westbury Hotel vigil ended with blood on the blazers, including that of ousted treasurer, Joe Delaney.
As the smoke and daggers cleared, his young son John vowed to avenge his father’s treatment.
Reports followed, one by accountants Bastow Charleton, who recommended: ‘Authorisation of all expenditure should be evidence in writing and supporting documentation should be maintained.’ Hmm.
Consultant Ray Cass perceptively noted ‘the tendency for the same people to stay in power.’ Hmm again.
Everything settled down until Saipan exploded in 2002, and the subsequent Genesis Report pointed fingers at the FAI hierarchy.
There were more resignations, more wailing and gnashing of teeth, with Delaney Jr, then treasurer himself, demanding openness, accountability and transparency.
Without this, he threatened to walk away from Irish football. Given the mess he has left behind, there are many who wish he had done just that.
Scroll forward to the end of a wretched 2019, a year which saw the FAI lose its CEO, treasurer, secretary, president – Conway announced on Friday he was going – all in shame. On top of that, Three, its primary sponsor, hung up on a four-year deal.
Once again, we hear promises of reform and obedience. Yet can anyone take those pledges seriously?
Perhaps it’s time to fold the Abbotstown tents, sell the share in Aviva
Stadium and close down the FAI as the parent body, and let the affiliates run themselves before, after a cooling-off period, a new Football Ireland may emerge.
Or maybe, just maybe, it’s worth one more spin of the wheel of football fortune, and stick with the familiar name on the tin, as Cooke put it.
This self-inflicted act of GBH might be the final health warning for an association on ‘life support’ as sports minister Shane Ross observed on Friday night.
Cooke has mapped out a rescue plan, which will require time and will come at a cost of jobs. He’s not in a position to reveal its content but should do once it is approved by the FAI Council next month.
Cooke’s ingredients should be fascinating.
‘For the loan to be approved, the Council will want to know what security we are putting up but as you will appreciate this is subject to confidentiality. We have sufficient security. We have to get approval,’ he said.
It’s vital Cooke stays on board. Snubbed by Conway as interim CEO despite unwavering support for the president on his election as vice-president in July, Cooke is the senior executive figure at the helm and brings a no-nonsense record of honesty and business achievement.
He must be supported as he plots a way out of the gloom.
Someone should perhaps remind Ross of the courage Cooke showed in asking questions of the FAI when everyone else in the football family, and Sport Ireland too, were happy to believe in the Abbotstown fairytale.
One of the chief culprits was Conway, whose inability to offer an apology on Friday was as shocking as the revelations that the FAI owe €62.3m, never mind the €462,000 pay-off to Delaney.
Given the chance to say sorry for what he didn’t see or ask about during 14 years on the board, four years as vice-president, 18 months as president, here’s what he said.
‘It’s not that I’m against an apology but, you know, apologies in Ireland... an apology on one side tends to have hypocrisy on the other side. When you listen to all these apologies we’ve had over the years, I worked for an Order one time who were apologising and at the same time making sure that any of their victims didn’t get redress.
‘So the apology thing doesn’t weigh with me and it’s not a failure to appreciate or apologise, but I don’t think it’s a particularly meaningful act.’
For many, it is meaningful, and it wouldn’t have cost Conway much to apologise on Friday, certainly not €62.3m.
As Cooke finalises his rescue plan, which will mean it takes until 2023 for the FAI to break even, there may be good news on the near-horizon.
Mick McCarthy, the one name that wasn’t mentioned at Abbotstown, may not be aware, but he is crucial to the FAI’s short-term financial salvation. If McCarthy can somehow plot a way for the Republic of Ireland through the Euro 2020 play-offs next March, it would wipe around 33 per cent off the association’s €62.3m debt.
Firstly, the FAI would have no shortage of suitors to come on board as team sponsors to replace Three and should recoup the €10m which the telecommunications company were prepared to pay for a fouryear deal.
On top of that, qualification for the finals would be worth a minimum of €9.25m, while one win from three group games would yield another €1m.
For all the FAI say that qualification for major tournaments is not relevant to their budget, there is so much riding on McCarthy and his men.
McCarthy was in town on Thursday for the FAI Christmas Party and later popped into Santry to pay respects to an old friend Eddie Corcoran, whose wife, Anne, sadly passed away this week.
Corcoran acted as the FAI liaison officer from 1985 until 2007, serving Jack Charlton, McCarthy, Brian Kerr and Steve Staunton.
At his wife’s funeral in Dardistown yesterday, FAI friends showed their support for one of Irish football’s unsung heroes, among them Brendan Menton, John Byrne, John Fallon and Packie Bonner.
The four share the title ‘former’ when it comes to the FAI.
Menton was general secretary, Byrne was development officer, Fallon was kit man to the senior team, Bonner was technical director.
Four good men were all lost to Irish football because Delaney dispensed with them.
Might they return? I fervently hope so. Bonner has a quality which the FAI desperately need, and is worth 10 times any severance package, yet costs nothing. It’s trust.
If ever Irish football needed a safe pair of hands at the helm it is now. And there are none safer than Bonner.