Strange And Unusual

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From top: Fran Rooney; John Delaney

“What is very strange is that the entire arrangement with the €100,000 loan … that it wasn’t disclosed, but particularly the fact that he [John Delaney] tried to seek an injunction [against the Sunday Times] to have it suppressed and to have the article suppressed.

That raises an awful lot of questions. It’s very unusual. This is an organisation that has extensive banking facilities, so should be in a position to go to its bank for a short-term loan. It’s just very strange.

The fact that it wasn’t disclosed, it wasn’t in the accounts, it wasn’t disclosed at the AGM … there was a whole area of secrecy around it, looking for a court injunction to prevent the article by The Sunday Times being published last week.

The very interesting thing that we should all remember here is that the Football Association of Ireland is a publicly funded body so this is taxpayers’ money.

It should be disclosed immediately through Sports Ireland, through the department – through Shane Ross’s department.

To actually do something that appears to be hiding a transaction and then appearing later on not only to hide it, but to try to have the matter obliterated … by having a court injunction.”

Fran Rooney, former chief executive of the Football Association of Ireland on RTE Radio One’s Morning Ireland earlier.

Questions over FAI controversy go beyond Delaney – Rooney (RTÉ)

FAI chief John Delaney steps aside amid financial queries (Mark Tighe, Sunday Times)

UPDATE:

Further to reports in yesterday’s Sunday Times that the FAI paid rent for properties in which John Delaney lived for several years

Namely that, since 2016, it paid €3,000 a month to rent a Wicklow property from former RTE broadcaster Grainne Seoige for Mr Delaney and it also paid just under €3,000 a month for him to live in Malahide, Co Dublin during a separate period…

RTÉ reports:

FAI workers are asking for an explanation of why they had pay cuts at a time that the organisation began paying rent for chief executive John Delaney.

…Today, SIPTU Sport Sector Organiser Denis Hynes said: “FAI employees were enduring reductions in salary of between 10% and 15%, which were implemented on what was meant to be a temporary basis in 2012.

“This issue has particularly incensed our members because when the cuts in their pay were originally imposed, John Delaney stated that he was taking a similar reduction in his earnings.

“However, it would now seem to be the case that, in 2016, the FAI decided to reimburse the reduction in its CEO’s salary through a payment in kind on a large property.

Our members had to wait until January of this year to receive the final restoration of their pay after long and difficult negotiations between management and SIPTU representatives.”

FAI staff had pay cut while Delaney rent paid – SIPTU (RTE)

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19 thoughts on “Strange And Unusual

  1. Optimus Grime

    I said John’s days were numbered and no one believed me! Who’s laughing now? Beside’s John Delaney?

  2. martco

    an important subelty which seems to have been missed out on in the reporting of this was that it wasn’t just an injunction against the publication of the story that Delaney was after – it was a so called “super injunction”

    maybe someone with real expertise could comment but if I’m not mistaken that distinction means he wanted the issue utterly nuked so you’d never know that he’d been to the courts!!

    1. eoin

      Yes, a super-injunction is an order stopping the reporting of the existence of an injunction. I don’t think we’ve had any in Ireland and lawyers say that the Constitutional requirement for the open operation of justice would stop judges granting such an order.

      It was also interesting that it was John Delaney and not the FAI which wanted the story buried, you could understand why the FAI wouldn’t want its precarious finances reported but why would John want to stop a loan being hidden?

  3. RuilleBuille

    It’s been obvious for years that the FAI is ridden with corruption. Tax payers money should be pulled until a root and branch reorganisation takes place.

  4. Joe Small

    I could be wrong, but I don’t think Fran Rooney is a paid up member of the John Delaney fan club.

    The UEFA Executive Committee membership is reported to earn another €100,000 a year. Its for 4 years from 2017, apparently renewable twice.

    1. Joe Small

      From UEFA website – “Each Executive Committee member to be elected by the Congress, except for the President and any female member, holds an active office (i.e. president, vice-president, general secretary or chief executive officer) within his member association.”

      That’s illuminating.

  5. eoin

    Looking at the board of directors at the FAI, the lack of independence, governance experience, commercial nous (none appear to be involved in non-related businesses, except John Delaney who runs a loss-making furniture business) and their length of tenure, all point to it being time to wield the broom and get new faces installed.

    In my opinion, John Delaney should no longer hold any position of authority or influence in the FAI. His attempts to suppress the loan in court and the fact neither the loan nor the accommodation provided was shown in the financial reports suggests to me his time and service to the game has come to an end.

    1. V for Frilly

      Governance failures
      All already mentioned here several times over the last few days
      Had a bitta’ve rant about Directors failing and not being held responsible there yesterday
      on the Papers I think

      Anything from Deloittes yet?

      Maybe one of the lads
      Blokes like
      Need to be seen to be the ones asking

      Incidentally anyone here at the FAI AGM
      Aaron?

      Did anyone query the Accounts then?
      Or the fitness of the Board?
      Were any of them up for election/ re-election?

      Btw Fran Rooney is hardly Independent but what was stopping him from attending the AGM and asking questions

      And just a reminder
      But maybe this might be better coming from a Bloke
      12.5% of income in 2017 was taxpayers funds
      Somehow I can’t see that being withdrawn

  6. Lilly

    The only reason I would seek a super injunction to stop it getting out that I had given a ‘loan’ to my employer is if I had been dipping into the till, got caught and wanted to put it quietly back.

      1. Lilly

        It was only a week or so ago, I doubt they’ve been paid yet. If the decision had gone his way, my guess is the FAI would have absorbed the costs and no one would be any the wiser.

  7. realPolithicks

    The lack of corporate governance in Ireland is astonishing, these people behave in the way they do knowing that the chances of any there being any consequences to them are slim.

  8. Truth in the News

    Shane Ross wrote for years about IBEC in the Sunday Independent and even wrote highly acclaimed
    books with his son in law about our Banks, he is now in pivotal position to pull the plug on the FAI and
    commence an investigation on where did all the Taxpayers Money go….FAI Sponsors are already pulling
    the plug:

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