UEFA ‘TO BOOT OUT DELANEY’
(and he will not get any more free tickets for matches either)
INTERNATIONAL soccer body UEFA is expected to expel former FAI boss John Delaney from the sports association.
In a further snub to the exfootball supremo, the FAI has also decided its former CEO should not be entitled to any ticket allocations for soccer matches.
These revelations come as it has emerged that the soccer body Mr Delaney once controlled has racked up debts of more than €62m.
‘UEFA will watch very closely what happens’
Such is the dire state of the FAI’s financial situation that its auditors are no longer prepared to sign-off on the sporting body’s accounts or even to describe it as a going concern. Deloitte has told the FAI that it no longer wishes to audit it.
Mr Delaney was appointed to UEFA’s executive committee in 2017 when he was chief of the FAI and this position came with a generous yearly payment of €160,000. His term of office on the committee is not due to expire until 2021 and he has also served on UEFA’s youth committee.
But the FAI’s outgoing president Donal Conway hinted this weekend that Mr Delaney was likely to be dismissed by UEFA.
When asked by the Irish Mail on Sunday about Mr Delaney’s future representing Ireland internationally, Mr Conway said: ‘I would think that UEFA follow very closely what is happening here.
‘UEFA will watch very closely what happens over the next day or two.’
Pressed further and asked if the former FAI boss would have a future role with UEFA, Mr Conway then said: ‘I expect he won’t.’
He made these remarks at a press conference held at FAI headquarters in Abbotstown on Friday and the FAI president also confirmed that even though Mr Delaney is now a former senior FAI official, he will not be entitled to any tickets for future matches.
Mr Delaney was moved from his position as the FAI chief executive officer to a new specially created position of executive vice president after it emerged he had given his employers a €100,000 interestfree loan.
By switching roles this allowed him to retain his lucrative €160,000 a year position on UEFA’s executive committee – this payment was on top of his €300,000-plus FAI salary, as well as expenses, a company car and rental cover – all totalling €428,571 a year.
The former FAI chief was not invited to a meeting of UEFA’s ExCo committee held last September
in Slovenia and when asked at the time about the non-invite, UEFA officials said they were waiting for the results ‘of the investigation in Ireland’.
Last July Mr Delaney was replaced by Zbigniew Boniek as chair of the UEFA Youth and Amateur Football Committee. UEFA rules state only those of general secretary or presidential ranks in a member association can be elected to serve on ExCo.
The next ExCo meeting was due to be held last Wednesday at UEFA HQ in Nyon, Switzerland – two days before the FAI unveiled its dire financial position. In addition to revealing it has debts of €62m, the accounts also revealed that the FAI had breached banking regulations as well as company law rules. And FAI directors also admitted they had breached tax regulations.
FAI also breached banking regulations