GOAL director quits in row with O’Shea

THE former chief executive of the Football Association of Ireland has resigned in dramatic fashion from his position on the board of international aid agency GOAL following strong differences of opinion with the chief executive, John O’Shea.

The resignation of Fran Rooney, former chief executive of Baltimore Technologies, comes in the wake of the resignation of the board’s former chairman, barrister Kenneth Fogarty.

Mr Fogarty is understood to have been unhappy with certain issues surrounding corporate governance at the charity. Mr O’Shea last night failed to return calls to the Irish Examiner.

During 2010, five members of GOAL’s board of directors resigned, four on August 22, including longstanding chairman Jerry Sheehan. Andy Butler, Conor Sparks and David Allman also resigned on that date.

On January 5, 2011, a sixth director, John Wilson, resigned. No new directors were appointed during the year, although six new directors were appointed post year-end. The directors are tasked with reviewing the finances and monitoring the charitable work at regular board meetings throughout the year.

Mr O’Shea has claimed that no GOAL employee is paid more than €100,000. However, this conflicts with the charity’s audited financial statements for 2010, which show two employees were paid up to €115,000.

In an interview on Newstalk radio on October 12, 2010, Mr O’Shea told interviewer Chris Donoghue “nobody in GOAL is paid over €100,000, including myself”.

The charity gave the same information to the Irish Examiner in a survey the paper did this year on remuneration levels for chief executives in the charity sector.

When Mr O’Shea was asked on November 25 last to explain the apparent contradiction, he said: “We have nothing else to say. I said we have nothing else to say. Thank you, thank you, goodbye,” before hanging up.

Among GOAL’s key staff members are Jerry Cole, acting chief operations officer; Lisa O’Shea, head of PR and marketing and daughter of John O’Shea; Jonathan Edgar, acting head of programmes; Alan Glasgow, acting HR manager; Nicky Maguire, chief financial officer; and Darren Hanniffy, head of logistics and IT.

GOAL has raised in excess of €720 million for humanitarian programmes in more than 50 countries.