Unions representing staff at the Football Association of Ireland are confident of minimal job losses at the cash-strapped organisation following talks with Shane Ross.

Ireland legend Packie Bonner has said that admits he would be open to working at making a comeback to the crisis-hit FAI again.

Steps to prevent the Football Association of Ireland descending into insolvency will intensify this week with the announcement of independent directors and a roadmap to financial stability.

Despite another day of caustic soundbites from government officials, the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) are increasingly confident that their future will be secured in the coming weeks.

Christmas arrives. Die Hard is on. Only this year it doesn’t involve Bruce Willis climbing up an elevator chute and killing baddies. No, this year Die Hard took place at the reconvened FAI AGM.

The FAI’s Paul Cooke has starkly outlined how perilously close to the end game he believes the embattled association really is.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has ruled out a taxpayer bailout of the Football Association of Ireland, as the FAI outlined that its liquidation is a serious possibility should such a move fail to materialise.

Notice was given that the 2020 AGM will take place on July 25 next year in Ballybrit, Co Galway – which, given the extent of the FAI’s current crisis, felt like a major act of faith.

The Minister’s statement came after the FAI had issued a formal apology for what it termed “the mistakes of the past”.

Delegates attending today’s reconvened annual general meeting of the FAI were informed of the threat of liquidation hovering over the organisation.

At the end of a tumultuous year for the Irish football, delegates will on Sunday face into a third emergency general meeting of the Football Association of Ireland in 2019.

The new Football Association of Ireland board is set to have its first female director after the Schoolboys FAI (SFAI) last night proposed Ursula Scully as their nominee to replace John Earley.

Another day, and another battering of the FAI’s reputation — but this today's pummelling in Leinster House could prove the tipping point for its survival prospects.

The Government “is not in the business of bailing out” the debt-ridden FAI under any circumstances.

The FAI’s executive lead Paul Cooke tonight refused to deny a claim by Sports Minister Shane Ross that the association have sought a bailout of over €10m.

The government has said that there are still reformations needed in the Football Association of Ireland before the body gets its State funding back.

The FAI will finally publish their 2018 accounts, revealing in full the dire financial state of the association.

Paul Cooke, newly installed as Executive Lead – effectively now the Association’s acting CEO – gave ample warning at October’s AGM that the figures “won’t be pretty and will shock people”.

The Football Association of Ireland are prepared to defy Sports Minister Shane Ross by appointing a new chief executive without his imprimatur.

The FAI have switched Vice-President Paul Cooke to a full-time position of executive lead as their search for a new CEO continues.

FAI HQ at Abbotstown yesterday afternoon, the rain teeming down outside and, inside, a mood not a whole lot brighter than the weather, as president Donal Conway, vice president Paul Cooke, and general manager Noel Mooney sat around a table with a group of football journalists, further teasing out matters aired at an earlier press conference which had followed a meeting of the newly-convened national council.

Is it a poisoned chalice or an opportunity of a lifetime?

Shane Ross might not be the only one still holding out for ‘root and branch’ reform of the FAI.

Niall Quinn has slammed the FAI’s reform bid, claiming he’s no interest in joining the new board.

Executive recruitment agency Amrop have been tasked with selecting the independent directors for the new 12-person FAI board.

Donal Conway insists it’s not yet possible to put a final figure on the full extent of UEFA’s bail-out of the FAI, but he expects the picture to be clarified in August when an agreement between the two bodies will be signed.

The new Vice President of the FAI, Paul Cooke, has said that he believes the Association is “genuinely on the road to reform”.

Following his re-election as FAI President and the filling of eight places on a new 12-person board, Donal Conway has said that he believes stability has been returned to the embattled organisation.

It will be an FAI AGM with more than one difference in Trim today as at least six and possibly seven new faces are elected to the board, no accounts are presented to delegates and, in a flesh and blood illustration that the crisis in Abbotstown is not just a local affair, representatives from both Fifa and Uefa will be on hand to keep an eye on proceedings.

Donal Conway has been nominated unopposed by AGM members to be the next FAI president.

The Board of the FAI has said it is “shocked and disappointed” by SIPTU's claim that there is a threat the Association could become insolvent in a matter of weeks.

Mr Cooke was nominated unopposed for the position of Honorary Treasurer by the FAI board.

The Sunday Business Post has reported operating losses of €218,889 for the year to the end of June last year.

On Friday night, at the Arklow Bay Hotel, the FAI were handing out media awards, but just the following morning in the same venue, they were warding off attempts by journalists to question chief executive John Delaney.

The investor poised to take over the Sunday Business Post will plough €750,000 in to the newspaper if the High Court approves the rescue buyout package.

A rescue plan for the Sunday Business Post will be put before the High Court for approval next Wednesday.

Corporate finance firm Key Capital and former Irish Daily Star managing editor Paul Cooke have agreed a deal to buy the Sunday Business Post.

The Sunday Business Post has been saved from closure.

The deadline for interested parties to submit bids for the Sunday Business Post to the company’s examiner passed yesterday.

PAUL COOKE is to step down as managing director of Independent Star Limited — the publisher of the Irish Daily Star — at the end of this week.

THREE Irish Examiner journalists have been shortlisted for the inaugural National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI) Journalism Awards.

RAMPANT Sligo Rovers put five past nine-man Dundalk at the Showgrounds last night to strengthen their position at the top of the Airtricity League Premier Division.

THE owner of the Irish Daily Star newspaper had a 10% drop in profit last year, according to its newly filed accounts.

Independent Star Limited, publisher of Irish Daily Star newspapers, has reported operating profits of €4.3m for the year ended 31st December 2010.