JOHN DELANEY COULD never have been said to have been often deserted during his reign at the FAI, but as he heads to government buildings this morning he may reflect on being sidestepped by luck.
Today’s appearance before the Joint Oireachtas Committee for Tourism, Transport and Sport was initially pencilled in for January, but was postponed to 20 February. Then it was cancelled again, as Delaney had some important Uefa business to attend to.
He may now privately wish that bit of Uefa business wasn’t so important, as he heads for Kildare Street with the agenda considerably more focused and the atmosphere highly fraught.
Delaney will be today’s central figure, but he will be one of a large FAI delegation featuring President Donal Conway, Interim CEO Rea Walshe, Honorary Treasurer Eddie Murray, Chair of the Legal and Corporate Affairs Committee Paraic Treanor, Competitions Director Fran Gavin and High-Performance Director Rudd Dokter.
Nonetheless, all of the attention is, as ever, on Delaney.
He has been a fixture of the front pages ever since he tried to keep his name from one.
After his 16 March High Court injunction against the Sunday Times failed, he released a statement to clarify that the personal cheque wrote to the FAI in April 2017 was a “bridging loan” to the value of €100,000, to help the Association through a cash flow problem. It was repaid in full three months later.
A week later brought the remarkable state of affairs whereby he ceased being the FAI’s CEO and assumed a new role entitled Executive Vice-President on a Saturday night, less than an hour after Ireland’s Euro 2020 qualifier against Gibraltar had ended.
The questions that have piled up over these last three weeks remain unanswered.
Why did Delaney not respond to The Sunday Times about the cheque – having been given 15 days to do so – before filing the injunction? Why was the bridging loan not recorded in the annual accounts filed for that year?
Why did the FAI not revert to a banking facility to sort the cash flow problem, rather than take a loan from an employee?
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How often does the FAI suffer these cash flow problems?
If they recur, how have they affected the FAI’s investment in different areas of the game in Ireland? Is the stated aim to ensure the Association is debt-free by 2020 a prudent one?
And how did the FAI run into such a problem in April 2017, given they had a full house at the Aviva Stadium as recently as 24 March?
Delaney pictured at Ireland's Euro 2020 qualifier in Gibraltar last month. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
As for his new role, recommended after a review of the FAI’s governance structure: why did the Jonathan Hall report recommend the day before an Irish qualifier in Gibraltar – when all members of the Board would not necessarily be in the same country – as a suitable date to decide whether or not to make a long-term strategic decision?
And why was it necessary for Delaney to step aside immediately, when Rea Walshe, the newly-appointed interim CEO, was set to become Chief Operating Officer in April, a decision announced in February?
And following the revelations that the FAI paid Delaney’s €3,000-a-month rent during a time in which FAI employees suffered pay cuts: what other expenses and perks have been granted to Delaney and/or other members of the Board?
And how much are they worth?
Added to all of this are the long-term questions that have clung to the FAI Board, notably the disastrously overpricing of Vantage Club tickets that has resulted in an enormous debt burden, and the failure to appoint two independent Board members – a key recommendation of the Genesis Report.
While we may not get answers today, we should at least get the questions.
Given how infrequent and carefully-managed Delaney’s interviews and media appearances are, that is worth pointing out.
Delaney appeared before this Committee in 2017, and was given a laughably easy ride, with some of the Deputies overly eager not to offend him.
The format didn’t allow for a true back-and-forth, and he ended up scarpering early to attend an event in memory of the late Milo Corcoran.
This time, it should be different. A number of the Committee members – chiefly Catherine Murphy, Noel Rock, Imelda Munster and Ruth Coppinger – showed a clear grasp of the issues and a desire to explore them during last week’s meeting with Sport Ireland, while the format is expected to follow that of last week’s too, where each member was given a ten minute, question-and-answer format to allow clarifications to be sought and filibusters to be cut short.
Delaney was subjected to protests at Ireland's most recent home game against Georgia. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
Any potential plans to avoid answering questions about the loan and hiding behind the Mazars report into the loan’s circumstances may not wash with today’s Committee, either.
Nor should time be an issue, given the Committee is slated to run from 10am to 6pm.
Delaney at least knew all of this was ahead of him on Monday morning.
A lot has happened since then, however.
On Monday afternoon a statement by Donal Conway featured an intriguing line, that
some recent comments made by the FAI did not accurately reflect the board’s level of awareness of the existence of the €100,000 issue in 2017
which may refer to an 18 March statement which stated that “the Board of the FAI has been kept fully informed in relation to this matter at all times.”
This is the first notable crack in the FAI’s policy of communicating via emailed statement.
It has also not gone unnoticed that the loan was a “matter” on 18 March and an “issue” on 8 April in a statement released by the President.
Then came yesterday’s late-afternoon bombshell: Sport Ireland’s decision to cut State funding to the FAI.
Delaney has often justified his position – and salary – by talking of the long hours he has dedicated to the grassroots of the game, and although he enjoys enormous support among many of its stakeholders, these claims will ring hollow in the Dáil today given he is now at least partially responsible for the loss of a major source of grassroots income.
Delaney will probably list his FAI achievements more than once for the Committee later today, but it will be difficult to lose sight of the fact he sits before them as the man who for 14 years ran an organisation that has now lost its state funding.
So if John Delaney leaves government buildings this evening feeling abandoned only by fortune…he can consider the day a success.
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John Delaney under pressure like never before as he faces Oireachtas Committee
JOHN DELANEY COULD never have been said to have been often deserted during his reign at the FAI, but as he heads to government buildings this morning he may reflect on being sidestepped by luck.
Today’s appearance before the Joint Oireachtas Committee for Tourism, Transport and Sport was initially pencilled in for January, but was postponed to 20 February. Then it was cancelled again, as Delaney had some important Uefa business to attend to.
He may now privately wish that bit of Uefa business wasn’t so important, as he heads for Kildare Street with the agenda considerably more focused and the atmosphere highly fraught.
Delaney will be today’s central figure, but he will be one of a large FAI delegation featuring President Donal Conway, Interim CEO Rea Walshe, Honorary Treasurer Eddie Murray, Chair of the Legal and Corporate Affairs Committee Paraic Treanor, Competitions Director Fran Gavin and High-Performance Director Rudd Dokter.
Nonetheless, all of the attention is, as ever, on Delaney.
He has been a fixture of the front pages ever since he tried to keep his name from one.
After his 16 March High Court injunction against the Sunday Times failed, he released a statement to clarify that the personal cheque wrote to the FAI in April 2017 was a “bridging loan” to the value of €100,000, to help the Association through a cash flow problem. It was repaid in full three months later.
A week later brought the remarkable state of affairs whereby he ceased being the FAI’s CEO and assumed a new role entitled Executive Vice-President on a Saturday night, less than an hour after Ireland’s Euro 2020 qualifier against Gibraltar had ended.
The questions that have piled up over these last three weeks remain unanswered.
Why did Delaney not respond to The Sunday Times about the cheque – having been given 15 days to do so – before filing the injunction? Why was the bridging loan not recorded in the annual accounts filed for that year?
Why did the FAI not revert to a banking facility to sort the cash flow problem, rather than take a loan from an employee?
How often does the FAI suffer these cash flow problems?
If they recur, how have they affected the FAI’s investment in different areas of the game in Ireland? Is the stated aim to ensure the Association is debt-free by 2020 a prudent one?
And how did the FAI run into such a problem in April 2017, given they had a full house at the Aviva Stadium as recently as 24 March?
As for his new role, recommended after a review of the FAI’s governance structure: why did the Jonathan Hall report recommend the day before an Irish qualifier in Gibraltar – when all members of the Board would not necessarily be in the same country – as a suitable date to decide whether or not to make a long-term strategic decision?
And why was it necessary for Delaney to step aside immediately, when Rea Walshe, the newly-appointed interim CEO, was set to become Chief Operating Officer in April, a decision announced in February?
And following the revelations that the FAI paid Delaney’s €3,000-a-month rent during a time in which FAI employees suffered pay cuts: what other expenses and perks have been granted to Delaney and/or other members of the Board?
And how much are they worth?
Added to all of this are the long-term questions that have clung to the FAI Board, notably the disastrously overpricing of Vantage Club tickets that has resulted in an enormous debt burden, and the failure to appoint two independent Board members – a key recommendation of the Genesis Report.
While we may not get answers today, we should at least get the questions.
Given how infrequent and carefully-managed Delaney’s interviews and media appearances are, that is worth pointing out.
Delaney appeared before this Committee in 2017, and was given a laughably easy ride, with some of the Deputies overly eager not to offend him.
The format didn’t allow for a true back-and-forth, and he ended up scarpering early to attend an event in memory of the late Milo Corcoran.
This time, it should be different. A number of the Committee members – chiefly Catherine Murphy, Noel Rock, Imelda Munster and Ruth Coppinger – showed a clear grasp of the issues and a desire to explore them during last week’s meeting with Sport Ireland, while the format is expected to follow that of last week’s too, where each member was given a ten minute, question-and-answer format to allow clarifications to be sought and filibusters to be cut short.
Any potential plans to avoid answering questions about the loan and hiding behind the Mazars report into the loan’s circumstances may not wash with today’s Committee, either.
Nor should time be an issue, given the Committee is slated to run from 10am to 6pm.
Delaney at least knew all of this was ahead of him on Monday morning.
A lot has happened since then, however.
On Monday afternoon a statement by Donal Conway featured an intriguing line, that
which may refer to an 18 March statement which stated that “the Board of the FAI has been kept fully informed in relation to this matter at all times.”
This is the first notable crack in the FAI’s policy of communicating via emailed statement.
It has also not gone unnoticed that the loan was a “matter” on 18 March and an “issue” on 8 April in a statement released by the President.
Then came yesterday’s late-afternoon bombshell: Sport Ireland’s decision to cut State funding to the FAI.
Delaney has often justified his position – and salary – by talking of the long hours he has dedicated to the grassroots of the game, and although he enjoys enormous support among many of its stakeholders, these claims will ring hollow in the Dáil today given he is now at least partially responsible for the loss of a major source of grassroots income.
Delaney will probably list his FAI achievements more than once for the Committee later today, but it will be difficult to lose sight of the fact he sits before them as the man who for 14 years ran an organisation that has now lost its state funding.
So if John Delaney leaves government buildings this evening feeling abandoned only by fortune…he can consider the day a success.
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FAI John Delaney Questions to answer