THE LONG-AWAITED appointment of an independent chairperson to the board of the FAI is being held up as the candidate undertakes a “thorough analysis of issues and concerns within the FAI.”
The FAI had hoped to have installed an independent chairperson along with a further three independent board members by the end of November, but that process has been delayed as the identified candidates do their due diligence.
The four candidates have been identified by external recruitment firm Amrop, who have passed profiles of each candidate to the FAI’s Nominations Committee, a five-person committee featuring two present FAI board members: outgoing president Donal Conway and Dick Shakespeare.
The FAI board do not know the names of the candidates.
In a letter to Sport Ireland and the Oireachtas Sport Committee, seen by The42, the FAI’s COO Rea Walshe wrote that the candidate for the role of Chair is “undertaking a thorough analysis of current issues and concerns within the FAI.”
The three remaining candidates will be briefed on these concerns.
While Ms. Walshe acknowledged the “urgency” attached to the appointment of the independent directors, she did not attach a timeline to their arrival.
Sports minister Shane Ross has made the appointment of independent directors to the board a priority amid the continued suspension of state funding.
The co-opting of two independent members to the FAI board was a recommendation of the Genesis Report of 2002, but it was not fulfilled.
Elsewhere, Minister Ross and Sport Ireland will appear before the Oireachtas Sport Committee next Wednesday, 18 December, at 9.30am.
The Committee have extended another invite to the FAI, and hope they will appear before Conway steps away as president on 25 January next year.
Some Committee members also hope that Niall Quinn will appear before them in January, to further outline a vision to split the FAI into two separate bodies: one a commercial entity to organise the international teams with another state-funded body caring for the grassroots of the game.
What we need
1 . Someone with sport experience at the highest level
2 a person with international reputation resilience and a person who hits the ground running
3 a confident administrator the government can trust with no links in the old FAI
In a word Pat Hickey
My report is comprehensive…….. corrupt and not fit for purpose. Proper corporate governance needed
Ya right
I think if your CEO and the company goes under your banned from being CEO elsewhere for 10 years. Means anyone looking at role will be very wary of taken charge of a company that could go under, which explains his checks, if he refuses job it doesn’t say much for FAIs chances of survival.
@Kingshu: I’m all for tighter legislation, regarding corporate responsibility on defaulting businesses but what you’re saying isn’t realistic. A very competent, qualified newly appointed CEO may give it everything in good faith but the business might be too far gone despite their belief. What you’ll have is failing businesses resorting to under qualified CEOs, making the situation much worse as anyone decent would be terrified of even taking the smallest gamble. Worse still the struggling business would have to pay astronomical renumeration to get someone decent, which they can’t afford.
And to think after Hickey was outed and disgraced in Rio, the “influencers” were touting the Bandit Delaney as a credible OCI successor. The anointed one was too well oiled eventually!