Tag Archives: Kevin O’Keeffe

 

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Fianna Fáil’s Kevin O’Keeffe, from Mitchelstown, Co Cork, who’s hoping to retain his Cork East Dáil seat, posted photographs of himself standing next to a limousine on Twitter and Instagram in the early hours of Sunday morning.

It followed a Behaviour & Attitudes poll in The Sunday Times showing Fianna Fáil had a 12-point lead on Fine Gael.

However, within hours ,Mr O’Keeffe deleted the picture from his Twitter account after complaints he was “out of touch”. He told Independent.ie:

“It was very negative. I was having a bit of fun I don’t have a limousine.

“I just happened to pull in at a filling station and just for a joke I said: ‘Lads can we put a sticker on the car and take a photo?’ It was shocking they [Twitter users] thought I’d bought a limousine.”

‘It was just for a joke’ – Fianna Fáil TD deletes limousine tweet after Twitter backlash (Hugh O’Connell, Independent.ie)

From top: Ex-CEO of FAI John Delaney; a statement issued by the Ireland’s four provincial football associations about Mr Delaney; a statement released by Limerick FC about Mr Delaney; a tweet last night by Neil O’Riordan, of The Irish Sun

On March 29.

The four provincial football associations released a collective statement praising former CEO of the FAI John Delaney’s contribution to Irish football.

It followed Mr Delaney stepping down from his CEO role and being made executive vice-president of the Football Association of Ireland, days after a March 17 report in The Sunday Times revealed he gave a loan of €100,000 to the FAI in 2017.

Almost three weeks on since the story about the loan broke, the circumstances surrounding the loan are still being sought by Sport Ireland while Mr Delaney will appear before the Oireachtas sports committee next week.

On the same date as the statement from the provincial associations, March 29, the Dublin & District Schoolboys League also released a statement. The statements are very similar.

Then, on Tuesday, Limerick Football Club’s chairman Pat O’Sullivan released a statement expressing the club’s confidence in Mr Delaney.

Again, the Limerick FC statement was very similar to those of the provincial associations and the DDSL.

Last night, Waterford FC owner Lee Power released a statement praising Mr Delaney.

After Neil O’Riordan, of The Irish Sun, tweeted that the figures in the statement were incorrect, the club amended the statement.

Further to this…

You Boys In Green tweetz:

WOW. Passage in Limerick FC statement praising John Delaney is, word for word, the exact same as the original statement from the Provincial Councils. Is there a sample being send to leagues/clubs? All so so similar.

If any club or League has been contacted and asked to make a statement backing John Delaney and wish to contact us, please get in touch. DM here or email youboysingreen@gmail.com Total anonymity, of course.

Meanwhile…

At last night’s Under-17 European Championships draw at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, where there was a drinks reception and dinner – which members of the Oireachtas sports committee were invited to shortly after the loan story broke…

Sigh.

Context

Earlier: Mazars Balls

Related: John Delaney understood the value of local support and he hopes it will allow him to resist the pressure from outside the FAI (Neil O’Riordan, The Irish Sun)

Cork Fianna Fáil TD Kevin O’Keeffe; ex-CEO of the FAI John Delaney

More balls?

The Irish Sun yesterday reported that former CEO of the FAI John Delaney secured two World Cup final tickets for Cork Fianna Fáil TD Kevin O’Keeffe – who is a member of the Oireachtas sporting committee – last summer.

The newspaper reported that Mr O’Keeffe paid €905 for the two passes.

Mr O’Keeffe told the newspaper he didn’t see a problem with sourcing the tickets via Mr Delaney and said:

“How (else) would I get a World Cup final ticket?”

This morning.

Joe Leogue, in The Irish Examiner, reported that he contacted Mr O’Keeffe last Thursday and asked him how he got the tickets for the final in Moscow and the TD said the FAI had no involvement in him sourcing the tickets.

Mr Leogue reports:

Mr O’Keeffe said there was a case of “wires crossed” and that his original reply intended to inform that the FAI did not have any involvement in his itinerary for the trip to Russia. This newspaper put it to Mr O’Keeffe that he had been asked if the FAI assisted him in any way, said no, and that his latest comments apparently contradict this.

Mr O’Keeffe said he never denied getting the tickets from the FAI, but that he had maintained that he was responsible for the financing and logistics of the trip. Last Thursday we also submitted a query in writing to the FAI Press Office.

Meanwhile…

This morning, The Irish Sun reports Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy, who is also a member of the Oireachtas sports committee, is calling for Mr O’Keeffe to step down from the committee, saying she believes there is now a “conflict of interest” facing Mr O’Keeffe.

The committee is scheduled to question Mr Delaney and other senior FAI members about the FAI’s governance on April 10.

But Fianna Fail TD Timmy Dooley has since told The Irish Examiner that Mr O’Keeffe is “not compromised”.

TD: Crossed wires to blame for FAI ticket denial (Joe Leogue, The Irish Examiner)

Fianna Fail TD Kevin O’Keeffe who is on Dail committee bought World Cup Final tickets through under-fire FAI chief John Delaney (Neil Cotter, Adam Higgins, The Irish Sun)

Under-fire John Delaney watches Ireland beat Georgia with partner Emma English as tennis ball-slinging football fans chant ‘f*** Delaney and the FAI’ (Michael Doyle and Adam Higgins, The Irish Sun)

UPDATE: