Eamon Quinn: Anatomy of a Fifa loan and that €5m

Fifa has provided new information about its treatment of the no-interest loan of €5m it gave to the Football Association of Ireland that throws fresh light on its understanding of the “long-term nature” of the loan agreement.

If follows a series of questions the Irish Examiner put to Fifa about the way the world soccer body had accounted for the FAI loan and subsequently wrote it off completely in its report and accounts between 2010 to 2014.

Fifa has now told the Irish Examiner that in 2012 — the year after it wrote down the value of the loan by €1m to €4m — that it also reclassified the remaining amount of the loan from “short term” to a “financial asset” to reflect its “long- term nature.” A spokesman said this was done in accordance with accounting standards.