EX-FAI CHIEF executive Fran Rooney has been critical of the way the association went about John Delaney’s long-awaited exit. 

A short statement was released late on Saturday night confirming the resignation of executive vice-president Delaney after months of controversy. 

The Waterford man served as FAI CEO for 14 years, before changing to a newly-created role back in March of this year, while also working on Uefa’s Executive Committee for the past two years. 

With a forensic audit into the association due to be published on 7 October, however, Rooney says several questions need to be answered. 

“The manner in which the announcement was made leaves a lot to be desired,” he told RTE Radio One’s Morning Ireland.

“The FAI has been talking about improved corporate governance in a new organisation but, in this case, it fell at the first hurdle.  To make an announcement at 11 o’clock at night meant that the Sunday papers couldn’t cover it.

“I believe this should have been done by way of a press conference so that questions could have been asked because there are a lot of questions to be answered.

“I’d be looking for full disclosure, not just of this termination package, but of all the payments that have been made to John Delaney over the last 14 years — including his salary, his pension, expenses, credit card payments, benefits in kind and any parachute payments. 

Unfortunately, this smacks of the old FAI with bad corporate governance and lack of transparency.

“The FAI is a public company in the sense that it’s using tax payers money and relying on government funding, so full transparency is needed. We go way beyond an employment contract here, this has been a scandal for the past six months. 

“We need to go beyond what would be normal employment confidentiality and provide full disclosure. I don’t think the FAI or John Delaney can hide behind that because of the extent of the issues that are involved here.” 

Fergus O'Dowd, chairman of the Joint Committee on Transport, Tourism & Sport. Morgan Treacy / INPHO Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO

Reports suggest that Delaney negotiated a deal worth around €500,000 to step down, and chairman of the Oireachtas Sports Committee, Fergus O’Dowd, has echoed the belief that the details of his severance package need to be released. 

“Why was it done now? added O’Dowd. “In eight days’ time, the forensic audit report into the FAI will be published, and yet this has happened in advance of that. So I am concerned about it, as the whole audit was about the FAI’s fitness to handle public funds, about their internal control environment and about the wider financial administration of the association.  

“This is only part of the picture, the jigsaw is still unassembled. I feel what we want, and what the whole country wants, is to give the money back to the FAI for the young people and to the families who, week and week out, go to football matches in good and bad weather, but we need total credibility.     

Obviously, is it better to have Delaney out than in? It is better to have him out, but I think this is the wrong time to do it. We have to concentrate on the organisation itself and what changes are needed.

“Public funds are there and the minister [Shane Ross] has asked if any public funds were used. We don’t know as the deal is secret and hidden. They tell us now we’ll know in November — maybe we’ll know before Santa Claus comes. I don’t know if Santa Claus came for John Delaney or not, but I do know that people are very worried about the future of the FAI.”  

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