Front page of today’s Irish Sun
This morning.
In The Irish Sun.
Neil Cotter and Adam Higgins have reported that former CEO of FAI John Delaney secured World Cup final tickets for one of the members of the Oireachtas sports committee, Fianna Fail TD Kevin O’Keeffe.
The committee is scheduled to question Mr Delaney and other senior FAI members about FAI’s governance in April.
Mr Cotter and Mr Higgins reported:
It’s understood the Cork TD met Delaney while out socialising last year and asked him about the possibility of landing tickets to the showpiece event in Moscow on July 15.
The then-FAI Chief Executive managed to bag two passes for the Fianna Fail sports spokesperson who paid the full price of €903 each for them.
Speaking to the Irish Sun, O’Keeffe said he didn’t see a problem with getting tickets from Delaney and asked: “How (else) would I get a World Cup final ticket?”
The report follows a separate report in The Sunday Times at the weekend in which Fine Gael TD Noel Rock claimed that he had been told that FAI had been briefing against him “including saying that he had sought complimentary tickets for Ireland’s game against Austria in Vienna in November 2016”.
Mr Rock said he attended the match as a guest of the taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who was minister for social protection at the time and that he has never sought or received complimentary tickets from the FAI.
Mr Rock:
“These bullying tactics have served some well in the past. They should not distract from the significant governance issues in the FAI.”
Further to this…
Eoin (from comments) asks:
The Deputy Kevin O’Keeffe story comes after Deputy Noel Rock says the FAI were briefing against him after he called for Delaney’s departure. Noel thinks the FAI is suggesting he was only after complimentary tickets. Just how many members of the Oireachtas sports committee have had ticket dealings with the FAI? It’s beginning to whiff of sleaze.
FAI chief John Delaney steps aside amid financial queries (Mark Tighe, The Sunday Times)