Tag Archives: FAI

This morning.

Via RTÉ News:

The FAI and IFA will be part of a joint bid with England, Scotland and Wales to host Euro 2028.

The five associations had initially commissioned a feasibility study to host the World Cup.

However, following an analysis of the economic impact, the political football landscape and likely costs involved, the alliance has opted to focus on the Euros instead, with the FAI saying in a statement: “Hosting a UEFA Euro [championship] offers a similar return on investment, with the European tournament carrying a far lower delivery cost and the potential of the benefits being realised sooner.

“It would be an honour and a privilege to collectively host UEFA Euro 2028 and to welcome all of Europe. It would also be a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate the true impact of hosting a world-class football tournament by driving positive change and leaving a lasting legacy across our communities.”

Fight!

Breaking FAI confirm joint bid with UK to host Euro 2028 (RTE)

From top: Republic of Ireland senior squad; Ciarán Murphy, of Second Captains

This morning.

‘Today with Philip Boucher Hayes’ on RTÉ Radio One.

Further to  manager Stephen Kenny confirming some Republic of Ireland players have opted against the Covid vaccine…

…. Ciarán Murphy (top), co-host of the Second Captains football podcast, said:

“It’s interesting from the point of view of a dressing room and the dressing room dynamics. I’ll leave the immunology to the eminent professor [Cliona O’Farrelly, professor of comparative immunology and biochemistry at Trinity College Dublin was a fellow guest] and I might talk about the dressing room dynamics and we’ll stick to what we’re slightly better at here…”

“This idea that young men, in this situation, in the NFL or Premier League, young sportspeople, lead a very closeted life. And the richer and more successful they are, the more closeted they are.

“The more suspicion perhaps of mainstream media, to use that terrible phrase, there is amongst these people. And they might get talking about conspiracy theories or, you know, wild anti-vax theories that they would have seen on the internet.

“And this, it spreads in the dressing room in a way that is kind of maybe harder for us to understand, you know, for those of us who work in a regular work environment.”

“…Sportspeople live in a kind of weird…it’s a weird situation that they find themselves in often. And the stick, in this situation might actually be more effective than the carrot.”

Gulp.

Yesterday: Missed Shots

This afternoon.

Via Irish Examiner:

“A number of players have had vaccines,” Kenny said in Dublin on Thursday afternoon. “Some haven’t, some have had one. In England the AstraZeneca has a long period between the first and second doses. Some players have been caught after the first one and some players decided not to get it.”

“We’d want everyone vaccinated, but players are men as individuals. They have the right to make their own decisions and you have to respect that. In an ideal world we’d prefer to have everyone vaccinated but we have to respect the individual wishes.”

Republic of Ireland manager Stepehen Kenny.

Stephen Kenny confirms some Republic of Ireland players have opted against Covid vaccine (Irish Examiner)

Robbie Keane

“Money is scarce. They (the FAI) have had no crowds at the matches, no season ticket sales and no major sponsorships announced. You can understand that because it’s a difficult marketplace; the international team isn’t winning games.

“There’s a lot of doom and gloom. It’s been tough.

“Within that, surely you’d think they’d get that one dealt with so that Robbie isn’t being paid for not working. I’m sure he’d prefer to be working.

“Robbie was given a four-year deal by the previous maestro while the manager only had a one-campaign contract. That was a mad situation from the start.”

Former Republic of Ireland manager Brian Kerr on the FAI still paying Robbie Keane over a year after he lost his position as the national team’s assistant coach.

Champagne, anyone?

Brian Kerr: FAI must sort out ‘mad’ Robbie Keane situation (RTE)

Pic: FAI

From top: The Board of the Football Association of Ireland has approved the 2019 accounts for the Association of the FAI AGM on December 29; Vanessa Foran

A year to the day ‘ish, since the last Broadsheet kickabout

This is a bit that didn’t make it past the gaffer;

It needs a new Strategic Plan, and a new Leadership team, and I would be more helpful when I get to consider Years ending 2020 and 2021, when we have an opportunity to see what the FAI can really achieve if it is run properly and is taken care of in the manner any organisation tasked with flying the Irish Flag should.

The purpose of re-entering it up front now is because the first half of your YE 2019 FAI Annual here on Broadsheet will focus more on the Governance & Assurance Year the FAI had, so I might as well pick up the pieces of last year’s.

My basis then was an already revised set of statements and by now we are well into extra time with even more injury time to be added with another 2018; restatement on the restatement.

For any year end review to be any use at all, you have to start with an opening balance that is safe, and with a relevant or peer comparison ie 2017.  Both these financial years have now been through the hands of Deloittes, Mazars and now Grant Thornton (Audit.)

For so many numbers of reasons, these restatements must be done.  But I will introduce you to just one, how do you measure your performance without knowing where your starting line is?

I am not going to ignore the restatement just by passing it – the full background is presented sensibly, and in fairness to Grant Thornton, in a clear and efficiently enough to get through it on a phone screen (pg44.) 

You will see there the adjustments go back beyond 2018 and 2017.  Now this would normally be a very touchy trigger for me, especially as there was a well got, resourced and togged out firm originally engaged to take care of the FAI’s financial statements.  This might make you want to wonder but why bother, you don’t get to play the same match twice.

Look forward

Besides, what is probably now a very mundane chore for the new Board and Management, the costs of the old FAI have to be charged into those historic accounts.  How else can they measure their own progress with the organisation.  More importantly, how will you and I know they are getting it right?

That is what the FAI today need to focus on.  Their next five years, not the last five.

Of the 164 recommendations within the Governance Review Group Report, 65 that tackled the more ingrained culturally embedded dugouts were already closed off by YE2019, namely around Board Composition and Board Officer Roles.  (pgs 4 & 5 btw) 

Speaking from experience, these legacy rumps are the hardest to change.  Particularly for the better.  Note to all volunteer organisations – If your rules are not protecting and enhancing your reputation, get them scorched from your rule book, then come up with better replacements

Which if you take a tighter look at last year’s Annual Review – Governance and Strategy – well the complete lack of any presence of Governance and Strategy was where it all went wrong.

That was where it was always wrong, they could have been bringing hundreds of millions in through their doors.  It was not all about generating enough money to stay solvent. (Now you see why I reinstated that first paragraph.)

All that time, year in year out, for decades in fact, being allowed the impression they were in the cosy cradle of signatures from their former external Auditors is all the more disappointing.  But only playing forward …..

Today the FAI is such a very different organisation.  In just one year of facing facts, facing truth and cleaning house, no matter how uncomfortable they made the residents of that former Board, they got it done.  And that’s something.

Now where these 164 came from might be a question; were they from the KOSI Audit that Sport Ireland commissioned, or GT’s Forensic Audit, or Mazars redoing of the previous year-ends that Deloittes finally entered their own doubts over, or a blend of them all.

One way or another that was one hell of a taxi meter running between all these professional billable-hour firms since many of them were obvious, and replications from other well run Volunteer led organisations. Ahem

But for what it’s worth, as a professional courtesy, I am inclined to think there was a strong influence from the Grant Thornton Forensic Investigation myself, only because I know how they work, and I know the type of Report their engagement produces.

One way or another, no matter the architects, the Board obviously adopted the report and pursued its recommendations without lingering. But it does present an opportunity to flag the importance of Independence at Governance and Assurance levels, and since the external Auditors are now Grant Thornton themselves, for everyone’s sake, lets keep it to one engagement at a time.  Just saying.

One of the more remarkable things the 2019 Annual is in the opening pages – in the Chair’s opening line.  The will to turn it around could not get any more protruding than that.  But for doubters, again jog straight up to pg 6, Governance.

This time last year, there was chanting from too many seats in the stands calling for the FAI to be shut down.   The Irish Times claimed death’s door and only the big brilliant Government could save it.

I advocated then, that the FAI was worth saving.  And I still do.

But it was not just all the Government.

I will insist that most of the heavy lifting has come from within the FAI itself.  A whole new board with a vastly different emphasis on its composition has proved that.

Remember this is a Volunteer type board, which is a very hard thing for experienced Directors to empathise with and understand.  It takes years, if not decades to develop an orderly organisation that functions with a Volunteer type governance.  Because Volunteer directors all have different motivations for being there, and it takes time, planning and patience to synchronise all those motives into one strategy.

When it came to it, the bailout that is, the Government were just a part.  Their lenders, Bank of Ireland, who by their very operational nature do not take risks, were very quick to step in, and so did UEFA with a five bar interest free loan.  (pg 23 Going Concern.)

For people in my game, that level of support and endorsement is not nothing.  It speaks to the potential of the Organisation.  Not its past. It should also highlight the level of trust this new Board can command.

Further proof that the FAI was worth working with, and I did back this up last year, was that the FAI has an ability to earn significant income for itself, when it can.

For instance, given the reputation it owned when they opened 2019, its sponsorship income only dipped 5% (€7.6m from €8m.)

For this review I’ll opt to discuss Income deliberately, because I think it is unfair, as well as meaningless for future comparisons on the FAIs progress on how it runs itself.  But only until all the back office functions are running as they should be.  There is a whole lot of operational day-to-day restructuring still to do. So, let’s let them get on with it for now.

But there is something else you can tell from just using their Income value – is how their activity measures up against their rivals/ competitors.  In this case the GAA and Rugby.  A flyby observation will tell you the FAI just is several divisions below our other national sporting brands.

Of course that may level off in 2020 and the year of the COVID-19.  So that’s the ould’ GAA excuse in early.  But there will be no 2019 Annual Report that doesn’t have Covid-19 as a post balance sheet event.

Yet I would have to say this, that FAI have the advantage this year of new streaming fees from wider platforms.  Soccer was always had a natural fan base that didn’t object to subscription fees and pay-per-view arrangements to follow their chosen sport/ team, something that the GAA itself has always struggled with.

Likewise, Rugby has never had the Club structure that promised a fan base that naturally regenerated within its own grounds.

Leaving all that aside, what was in front of the FAI when this year started was the one time opportunity they will never get again, a second chance, and the opening to make a fresh faced clean hands appeal to big ticket sponsors; the FAI were not in a position to market themselves to anyone this time last year.

As for going concern, since I have flagged it here and on the Telly over the recent months, it is now firmly confirmed and signed off, and without qualification.

But there is a Grant Thornton warning, albeit subtle and throughout, a very typical Grant Thornton fingerprint actually; there remains material uncertainty- another GAAesque getting the excuses in early maybe, but it is their signature, a function of professional practice I take very seriously myself.

So consider this signed; The FAI has better days ahead, it is still all to play for in the second half.

On a final note on yer man.  Consider this everyone; Page 32 Employees:  The Staffing complement went from 200 to 199 over the year that was 2019.  (.5%) Costs to the P&L went from € 13,241,183 to € 9,926,896.  That’s 30% of a drop or a saving if you like.

Consider that again.  A half of a percent in head count represented 30% of their costs to the organisation.  How’s that for a Value for Money comparison.

Finally, I would like to congratulate Grant Thornton. The report Grant Thornton delivered to the Board of the FAI last weekend was exceptional, and a template on how to produce financial statements.  It was clear, understandable, and business like.  It focused entirely on the business of the FAI and not on the personalities it engaged, there was not one ounce of spin or flash or PR.  So take note RTÉ.

Before ye get the knives out lads.  I can promise ye there will be one department in GTs that will be laughing at that, while another one will be spitting feathers and probably a few bots out too.  Neither are the Audit Dept.  And for the record, in my own history of Financial Control and other Governance roles I have never actually worked with Grant Thornton’s External Auditors.

Two more disclosures that relate to Conflict of Interest.  I do know the former Interim CEO Gary Owens in a personal and private capacity, but I have not had any engagement with him since he stepped into the FAI.

Likewise with Niall Quinn; our previous association was entirely linked with my role in my own Credit Union, and his role with his former school boy club Manortown United, and limited entirely to that relationship.

All that’s left to say is: Hon Ireland.

Vanessa Foran is a principal at Recovery Partners.

Rollingnews

Danger here.

This morning/afternoon.

Sunday Times journalist Mark Tighe tweetz:

We’ve been digging deep into the John Delaney regime at the FAI and are excited to announce our book Champagne Football is now available for pre-order from Easons [at link below]. Will hit book shops in Sept – barring any last-minute injunction attempts!

Champagne Football by Mark Tighe and Paul Rowan (Eason)

Ouch.

This afternoon.

Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, Dublin 2.

Shane Ross  – announcing a bailout of the FAI – ‘sports’ bandages on his left hand worn after he broke two fingers while knocking on doorsmarshalling‘ a ‘running event’ at at the weekend.

Earlier: Some People Are On The Pitch

Rollingnews

This afternoon.

In a statement, the FAI says:

“Niall is a former professional football player who has represented the Republic of Ireland national team 92 times, as well as playing in the English top flight for Arsenal FC, Manchester City FC and Sunderland AFC.

As well as being a former board member of Sport Ireland, Niall is the former Chairman of Sunderland AFC and a successful businessman across diverse industries in Ireland and abroad.

In addressing the current challenges facing the FAI, the executive team want to ensure that the organisation’s core objective of the promotion and development of the game of football in Ireland is prioritised.

Niall’s role with the team will focus on leading a future League of Ireland strategy, the overall development of the game in Ireland, including supporting grassroots and community initiatives together with our player pathway programmes.

Niall will also focus on helping restoring and building key relationships and trust with key peer groups and the media.

Gary Owens, FAI interim CEO, said: “We are really pleased that someone of Niall’s calibre is joining the team. Football is such an important game in this country at every level.

“Niall not only brings great insight and experience to developing the game but is passionate about football in Ireland – his energy and commitment is a great fit for the FAI as we begin reform of the organisation and look to create a better future for football in Ireland.”

Meanwhile…

Ah here.

Any excuse

Niall Quinn appointed as Interim Deputy CEO (FAI)

Minister for Sport Shane Ross at an Oireachtas Sports Committee this morning

This morning.

Via RTÉ:

The Minister also stated that if the FAI were to go under, his “guess” would be that the League of Ireland would go with it.

Minister Brendan Griffin said the FAI’s debts are €62 million — not €55 million — when funding and loans owed to UEFA are taken into account.

The future of the league will be part of the topics discussed in a planned meeting between the Government and UEFA in January.

Earlier, it was revealed an independent audit into the FAI has said that the organisation is not fit to handle public funds.

FAI were seeking €18m in bailout deal – Ross (RTÉ)

Yesterday: FAI, Deloitte And Adjustments

Rollingnews


From top: FAI; Deloitte; Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy; Taoiseach Leo Varadkar

This afternoon.

During Leaders’ Questions.

Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy raised Deloitte and how the company audited the debt-riddled Football Association of Ireland for 23 years.

Ms Murphy said the whole idea of having an external auditor is “that you have independent eyes on your accounts”.

But, she asked Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, “can that really be the case after 23 years of doing the same job for the same organisation?”

She went on to say:

“Financial information which was published recently during the unfolding of the FAI saga showed some startling adjustments to the FAI accounts for previous year.

In 2016, for example, an originally reported profit, it was adjusted from €2.344million to just €66,000.

In 2017, a profit in the accounts of €2.8million was adjusted to the point that it ended up being a loss of €2.9million in their accounts.

“This is in addition to the fact that the Revenue audit in 2019 revealed an underpayment of taxes and, together with interest and penalties, led to additional liability of €2.3million.

“It begs the question: Would the FAI have managed to secure the tax clearance certificate they needed to access Government grants?

“Taoiseach, you, yourself, were a Sports Minister, and you know that Government grants are paid on foot of a tax clearance certificate in addition to audited accounts but should we now be looking at a system whereby organisations are required to show evidence of audit rotation with in-built time limits for each audit period before a rotation is required. Good governance requires such a system.

“The UK, for example, have introduced a system of grading their audit firms which is also used to ensure rotation. They plan to publish the grades and past performance of the large audit companies and they’ve also introduced more powerful audit oversight.”

“…Taoiseach, my questions are: Do you accept that there is an issue with the same external audit firm, having an audit contract with the same organisation for 23 years or indeed anything near it?

The EU Statutory Audit Regulations in 2016 are supposed to introduce that but I don’t understand why that hasn’t happened and would you support making such a rotation system a pre-requisite for Government grant funding in addition to tax clearance certificates?

In response, Mr Varadkar said:

“Thanks deputy, I don’t want to cast aspersions on any particular audit firm, nor on the many thousands of very good people who work in that particular firm. But I do think the deputy asks good question and makes a very good point.

“And it is a principle of good corporate governance, that organisations shouldn’t be audited by the same people for ever and ever and ever again. So I think that’s something, certainly, that Sport Ireland, and other public bodies should examine as to whether it is made a condition of Government grant aid – that auditors are rotated after a period of time.

“And the same applies to board members as well. We often see a situation in a lot of organisations that we fund, whether its charities, whether its sporting bodies, whether its local task force and so on, where you have the same people on the board for 10, 20, you know, 25 years and that’s not good corporate governance either.

“You should have a rotation of board members too so I think they are definitely areas where I think Government can be more active in requiring turnovers of auditors and turnovers of board members as a condition of funding in the future.”

“In terms of the independent audit that’s been done, that was provided to Sport Ireland to the ministers, and is now being passed on to An Garda Síochána, and the Director of Corporate Enforcement is also being notified. The purpose of the audit was to get a clearer picture of the financial and governance issues within the FAI and to chart a course for the association to deal with the serious failings in order to restore confidence and public funding to football in Ireland.

“The board of Sport Ireland considered the reports on the 27th of November, welcomed that the audit found that State funding given to FAI was expended for the purposes that it was given and I think that’s an important point that we should reassure taxpayers and the public, that the taxpayers’ money that was given to FAI was used for the purpose intended…”

Later

Murphy: “…there was a European Union statutory audit regulation introduced in 2016 and it does include mandatory reporting, or mandatory rotation over quite a long period of time. But why doesn’t that not apply here, given that was introduced in 2016?

“And that would have maybe changed the auditors and had  a fresh look at a much earlier stage?”

Varadkar: “Deputy I honestly don’t know why that doesn’t apply in this case but I will check it out and provide you with a more detailed reply. It may well be, and I’m only guessing here, that that directive applies to bodies that are majority, or majorly publicly funded, whereas this is abode that received only a small proportion of its funding from the Government. But that’s just my guess, that’s often the way European directives work.

“They apply to largely funded or majority funded bodies, not ones that receive a proportion of their funding from the State but, like I said, I’ll check out on that. And I will ask the Minister for Public Expenditure to examine the wider issueif public money is going to a third party, through to a voluntary body,  to charity, to an NGO, surely it is appropriate that they are properly audited and they rotate their auditors and a bit like the FAI, appropriate that they should rotate their leadership as well, their chairman, their board members, and not have the same people in charge for 10, 20, 30 years which is just bad corporate governance practice, I think we’ll all agree.”

Watch back in full here (from 34.30)

Previously: Vanessa Foran: Let’s See That Again In Slow Motion

UPDATE:

Fiachra Ó Cionnaith tweetz:

The FAI has declined to attend a meeting of the Oireachtas sports committee tomorrow which was due to discuss the ongoing financial issues at the organisation.