Until he stands up and shoulders the blame, Hill has no credibility

‘Ididn’t push it. I wasn’t asking for it.’ These were Jonathan Hill’s words in Leinster House, the heart of the Irish parliament, on Wednesday. Ok, he may not have pushed, or asked, but he didn’t say stop.

Instead, Hill allowed €12,000 in lieu of holidays untaken in 2022 to wing its way to his bank account in the spring of this year.

This was a blatant breach of FAI employee rules, which he oversees.

While it wasn’t a breach of the conditions which the FAI signed up to in January 2020 to stop the association from going under, it wasn’t a street-smart move by Hill, or by those who approved it.

And here’s why.

By the time the secret payment was made, the FAI had already been collared over a benefit-in-kind tax owed by Hill in 2021 in relation to relocation expenses.

Heading into the fourth and final year of the Memorandum of Understanding, everyone in the FAI should have been on their guard, with Hill manning the ramparts 24/7. They had to stay squeaky clean, to ensure that Sport Ireland funding continued. After the excesses of the Delaney era, they couldn’t afford another CEO-related cock-up.

Only, they screwed up. Hill screwed up. Okay, he didn’t push it. He didn’t ask for it. But he took it. And he kept it.

If Hill had rejected the payment out of hand, or refunded it the instant it arrived, the FAI would have been spared this scrutiny; spared the wrath of elected politicians.

Instead, he let the twelve grand lie in his account, a sum less than five per cent of his gross salary of €258,000 — the cushy topup brought his 2023 earnings to €270,000.

Was he being greedy? There are many in Irish football who think so.

After a car-crash of a performance in Leinster House this week, I put it to Hill that he had yet to personally apologise for dropping the FAI into the manure.

He looked away.

Until Hill says,‘I’m sorry, this was all my fault, no-one else’s and I take full responsibility for the damage done to the association,’ his credibility is on the floor.

Not only that, there won’t be a snowball’s chance of the FAI getting the half a billion they want from the state for facilities for football.

If Hill is still CEO on February 1, when the FAI face the Public Accounts Committee, he’ll get another opportunity to make himself accountable.

On Wednesday, he blathered on about conversations here and conversations there instead of doing the right thing – fronting up and accepting the consequences.