Shakespeare hears Enron echoes in FAI shenanigans
AS Black Friday’s press briefing broke up at Abbotstown, FAI board member Dick Shakespeare was sought out for a quiet word.
A senior management figure in Dublin City Council with a long association with UCD, Shakespeare learnt of football integrity from the FAI’s greatest legislator, Dr Tony O’Neill, and was clearly shaken by the financial revelations of the FAI’s previous regime.
He agreed ‘The Doc’ would be rolling in his grave at some aspects of the FAI’s carry-on.
Of all the fiscal failings, it was the FAI’s handling of a gear sponsorship that never was with Sports Direct, which caught in Shakespeare’s craw.
Towards the end of John Delaney’s rule as CEO, the FAI received €6.5m from Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct as a payment to become the new FAI kit sponsors.
Only the deal should never have gone through as the FAI were already tied to a legally binding contract with JACC Sports, who cried foul.
The advance from Sports Direct was lodged as a sponsorship in the books, rather than a loan but, when the deal collapsed, the money had disappeared into a black hole.
It has left the FAI, who reported a loss of €1.67m in sponsorship contracts on Friday, to pay back €100,000 a month to Sports Direct.
Shakespeare felt the arrangement revived echoes of the Enron scandal of 2001, which saw the Houston-based energy giants hide billions of dollars of debt from failed deals and projects through accounting loopholes.
The scam was exposed and they filed for bankruptcy.
‘In terms of the Sports Direct thing that is the big swing. That would potentially be an Enron type of exercise. That would probably be the most disappointing piece on that one,’ said Shakespeare.
‘Basically you were booking an income stream in one year but you were selling your future. If we (the FAI) are €6.5m in, and then you have got to unwind that; it is an effective doubling of the debt in the accounts. Paul (Cooke) would be far better on that (than me).
‘Enron was on a far greater scale but that is what reminded me of it when I first heard about it. I thought “That was a bit Enronish.” It (the €6.5m) should have been treated as a loan.’
Shakespeare, who served on the FAI Council before his election to the board last July, had heard ripples around the FAI’s finances, but felt it wasn’t his area of expertise to raise flags against those who dealt with the numbers.
‘They were economical with the truth,’ he said. ‘If you are not versed in the whole piece, it was about knowing what questions to ask. The current board are now aware as to what questions to ask.’
Shakespeare declined to point fingers at former FAI board members. ‘I am not going to go after individuals or anything like that. Words like sleaze are tacky. There is enough out there now and I think it is the most complete set of accounts that the members and the media have ever seen from the FAI. It’s open and it’s transparent.
‘You got the opportunity to ask and there are certain things you still can’t say because it is not done yet. You don’t want to prejudice anything.’
It is almost 30 years since Tony O’Neill stepped down as FAI general secretary, 20 years since he passed away. Shakespeare learnt a lot of good habits from The Doc, but also appreciates how things have moved on since 1990 – the FAI is a bigger beast now.
‘I inherited some of his (O’Neill’s) nous and integrity. The reason you come on the board is because you think you can do something useful but in its present format an effective meeting a week is not sustainable for any volunteer.’