Oh, I say.
Wipe the smile off FAI goofball John Delaney’s cash-happy noggin with as many tennis balls as you can.
Chuck here.
Thanks Funkyirishman
Earlier: Throw Down
Tag Archives: John Delaney
Throw Down
at
Last night.
Aviva Stadium.
Tennis balls rained down onto the pitch during the Republic of Ireland Euro 2010 qualifier against Georgia in protest at chief executive John Delaney’s continued role in the Football Association of Ireland (FAI).
The balls were thrown on the field in the 33rd minute when Ireland was awarded a free kick.
After a delay for the balls to be cleared, Conor Hourihane scored to seal a 1-0 home victory.
Monday: New Balls Please
“It’s Daft”
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Board answering to the CEO rather than the other way around was always going to lead to corporate governance issues – people won’t challenge. Where are the Independent people on the board following the Genesis Report recommendations? @CathMurphyTD #TonightVMTV #socdems #Dail pic.twitter.com/bxyTXHVWvo
— SocDems DubMidWest (@SocdemsDMW) March 26, 2019
Last night.
On TV3’s Tonight Show.
Social Democrats co-founder and TD Catherine Murphy – who is a member of the Oireachtas sports committee which will question members of the Football Association of Ireland in April – recalls how she previously raised concerns about governance at the FAI.
Earlier: Ask A Broadsheet Reader
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)
At the Ireland V Gibraltar match in Gibraltar at the weekend
This afternoon.
On RTÉ’s Liveline.
Irish football fan Zino Kelly responded to an article in today’s Times Ireland edition which claimed some football fans are planning to hold a protest at the Ireland V Georgia match in the Aviva Stadium in Dublin tomorrow night.
The report said the protest will involve people throwing tennis balls onto the pitch.
But Mr Kelly claimed the allegation that people planned to throw tennis balls was from the “FAI propaganda machine”.
He said:
“It [the protest] will be interesting to see but it will definitely not tennis balls. Tennis balls, you know that’s trouble. I’d say you’d have to get on to the communications’ officer in the FAI to find out why, why that’s made the papers.
“Because it certainly didn’t come from supporters. And I’ve never heard of tennis balls at a match in Ireland before. So I think that’s a matter for the FAI to answer.”
He also said:
“For the last five years they’ve [FAI] been heavy handed – especially in the South Stand of Lansdowne Road and I think this is an excuse, when all the limelight is going to be on them tomorrow night.
“I think it’s a big excuse to continue that heavy-handedness by their stewards.”
Mr Duffy pointed out bags are normally checked at games as a matter of security.
But Mr Kelly said:
“They are indeed. But it’s a bit different when you go down to the singing section on the South Stand and there is, you know, there’s heavy searches and if you compare that to if you’re going to the West Stand and East Stand, there’s no searches.
“And this all stemmed from a protest 2014, when we were playing against the USA.
“…since then it’s always been more prominent in the South Stand.”
Mr Kelly also said he won’t return to watching Ireland play a home game, until John Delaney leaves the FAI “and indeed the whole board”.
He said:
“They have so many questions to answer.”
When he was reminded that Mr Delaney stood down from his role as CEO [but will take up the new role of executive vice president], Mr Kelly said:
“He’s still on their payroll and he still has as much, as far as we know, we don’t know how much influence he has, but to me, this is a made-up role and he is still the most powerful man in the FAI.”
Listen back here
Fans to stage Aviva protest over Delaney (The Times Ireland edition)
Earlier: Strange And Unusual
Pic: Richard Barrett
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:
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.”
Injury Time
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CEO of the FAI John Delaney
The CEO of the FAI John Delaney and other senior members of the FAI are to appear before the Oireachtas sport committee on April 10.
Mr Delaney is expected to be asked about his €100,000 “bridging loan” to the FAI in 2017.
Last night the State’s sports funding body Sport Ireland said it was seeking urgent clarification from Mr Delaney about the loan and the FAI announced it had responded in full to Sport Ireland.
In addition, journalist Barry Lenihan – speaking to Katie Hannon on RTÉ Radio One’s Drivetime yesterday evening – reported:
“Just this morning, members of the Oireachtas sport committee received a gentle reminder from the FAI for an event coming up on Thursday, the 4th of April, just six days before TDs and Senators are due to grill Mr [John] Delaney and co.
“Committee members are invited by the FAI to the UEFA U17 Championship 2019 draw in Dublin’s Aviva Stadium.
“The invite tells TDs and the Senators how, before the draw, they can enjoy ‘a pre-drinks reception’, whilst afterwards the FAI invites members to the official draw dinner.
“This, less than a week before the same TDs and Senators are due to question the same FAI about that controversial loan.
“I spoke to the majority of the committee today who questioned the appropriateness and the timing of this gentle reminder – all said they wouldn’t attend the event.”
In addition, Fine Gael TD Noel Rock told Mr Lenihan that invitations from the FAI, such as the one referenced above, are not “common practice”.
Mr Rock also said the committee’s members were not invited to a similar draw in Dublin’s Convention Centre last December for the qualifying of Euro 2020.
The members of the committee are Solidarity/People Before Profit TD Ruth Coppinger; Sinn Fein TD Imelda Munster; Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy; Fine Gael TD Fergus O’Dowd; Fianna Fail TD Kevin O’Keeffe; Fine Gael TD Noel Rock; Fianna Fail TD Robert Troy; Fianna Fail Senator Mark Daly; Fine Gael Senator Frank Feighan; Fine Gael Senator John O’Mahony and Independent Senator Pádraig Ó Céidigh.
Listen back to Drivetime in full here
Yesterday: Sweet FAI
We got our High Court ruling dismissing John Delaney’s injunction application at 9.35pm last night. That’s about 20 mins before The Sunday Times print deadline. I was out of there like this (except wearing a blue hoody instead of a blue dress!). pic.twitter.com/vHPJx1rrbW
— Mark Tighe (@marktigheST) March 17, 2019
CEO of the Football Association of Ireland John Delaney
On Saturday night, The Sunday Times journalist Mark Tighe tweeted that he had just spent three hours in the High Court.
The CEO of the Football Association of Ireland John Delaney had, from 6pm, tried to secure an emergency injunction to prevent Mr Tighe reporting that Mr Delaney had given the FAI a cheque for €100,000 in 2017.
Mr Tighe subsequently told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that, at the High Court, Mr Delaney also sought damages from the newspaper for breach of privacy and swore an affidavit – which was opened to the court – claiming that he believed the only place The Sunday Times could have got information about the cheque was from his divorce proceedings.
The High Court appearance followed the newspaper starting correspondence with Mr Delaney about the cheque on March 1.
On Saturday night, Judge Anthony Barr ruled in the newspaper’s favour and ordered Mr Delaney to pay the newspaper’s legal costs.
In his judgement, the judge said there was no proof that The Sunday Times’ source was Mr Delaney’s divorce proceedings.
The judge reportedly said: “…the finances of the FAI and any payment and repayment to its chief executive are matters of significant public interest.”
Mr Tighe tweeted that the judge found in their favour at 9.35pm – 20 minutes before the newspaper’s print deadline.
An article about the cheque subsequently appeared in the newspaper on Sunday, explaining that the €100,000 was drawn from Mr Delaney’s account at Bank of Ireland in Waterford and subsequently lodged at Bank of Ireland in Blanchardstown, near the FAI headquarters in Abbotstown.
The FAI has since issued three statements on the matter, saying that the cheque was a “bridging loan” from Mr Delaney to the FAI.
Yesterday, Niamh Lyons and Sean McCarthaigh, in The Times Ireland edition, reported that – since news of the cheque emerged – a whistleblower has contacted a member of the Oireachtas sport committee about a number of allegations concerning governance at the FAI.
They reported that the whistleblower is preparing to make a formal complaint to the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, while the politician who has received the information is going to see if the allegations can be put to FAI representatives when they go before the committee on Wednesday, April 10.
The FAI’s first statement was released around 11.40pm on Saturday night – after The Sunday Times went to print – with the FAI stating “the short-term loan [in April 2017] was required to aid cash glow on that occasion and was repaid in full” to Mr Delaney by the FAI in June 2017.
Mr Delaney was quoted in the statement saying: “This is the only occasion on which I provided the association with a short-term loan.”
On Sunday, the FAI released a second, longer, statement – about the FAI’s governance – which also included reference to the cheque.
In it, Mr Delaney was quoted as saying:
“I have already commented on the reasons behind the loan. I acted in the best interests of the association at a time when immediate funding was needed.
“This loan had no impact on the full financial position or performance of the association for the year. It was a matter of timing.
“The monies received from EURO 2016 were utilised in that year’s budgets as outlined in the financial report to the 2017 AGM.
“As CEO I hold regular meeting with our Director of Finance regarding the state of our finances and all items arising are conveyed to our board at our monthly meetings.
“This was the case in 2017 when I acted in good faith for the benefit of the FAI and will continue to do so.”
The statement added that a “full media conference will be held in early April”.
The third statement was released yesterday in which the association reiterated that “the bridging loan was made in the best interests of the FAI in 2017 when it experienced a short-term cash-flow issue”.
In further coverage about the FAI, Neil Cotter and Craig Farrell, in The Irish Sun, yesterday reported that out of Ireland’s three main sports — football, GAA and rugby — the FAI alone needs to beg for early drawdown of State funding.
And this morning, John Hand, also in The Irish Sun, reported that Mr Delaney likely faces a €50,000 legal bill after failing in his bid to secure an injunction.
Meanwhile, in late January, it was announced that the former Sports Editor at The Irish Sun Cathal Dervan had been appointed as the FAI’s new director of public relations and communications.
He’s to take up the position in April after seven years at The Irish Sun.
Delaney’s unexplained €100,000 cheque to FAI (Mark Tighe, The Sunday Times, March 17, 2019)
Big Signings
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A petition calling for chief executive of the FAI John Delaney to quit on change.org
This morning.
An online petition calling for the chief executive of the FAI John Delaney has secured more than 10,000 signatures.
The petition states:
Problem
John Delaney is on an annual salary of €360,000.
The club that comes in first place in the League of Ireland receives €110,000 (Before Champions League and Europa League prize money). This is completely ludicrous and we demand that Irish football become a priority for development of domestic players instead of relying on English clubs to do all of the development for us.
Solution
The real solution is complete restructure of domestic football in this country, but removing the current (useless) head of the FAI is a great start.
Yikes.
Remove John Delaney as head of the FAI (Change.org)
Related: Payoff for O’Neill and Keane may cost €3m (Irish Examiner)
Yesterday.
The Joint Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport continued with their hearings on strategies and governance of sport in Ireland with Sports minister Shane Ross and junior sports minister Patrick O’Donovan.
Mr Ross, while replying to a question asked by Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy, was interrupted by Mr O’Donovan to correct the record of events and throw former chairman John O’Mahony under a bus in relation to the decision on foot legal advice not to bring FAI CEO John Delaney in to face direct questioning regarding that €5m ‘Henry handball’ compensation payment.
Good times.
Watch in full here.
Shane Ross wants FAI to fully implement 2002 Genesis report (Irish Times)