Concern at timing of Delaney exit deal

The chair of the Oireachtas sport committee has expressed his concern at the timing of John Delaney’s departure from the FAI, and has called for transparency as to how much the former chief executive has received in a payoff from the association.

Fine Gael TD Fergus O’Dowd is one of a chorus of voices calling for clarity as to how much was paid to Mr Delaney, amid rumours the FAI gave him between €350,000 and €500,000 to terminate his 18-year relationship with the association.

“We don’t know the deal — it’s secret, it’s hidden. And they tell us now we’ll know it in November. Hey, you know, maybe we’ll know before Santa Claus comes.

“I don’t know if Santa Claus came for John Delaney or not. But I do know people are very worried about the whole future of the FAI,” Mr O’Dowd told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.

He was equally critical of the timing of the announcement, as it comes a week before an audit of the FAI’s finances by accounting firm Kosi is due to be presented to Sport Ireland.

“The forensic audit report into the FAI will be published, and yet this has happened in advance of that.

“So I am concerned about it because the whole Kosi forensic audit was about the FAI’s fitness to handle public funds, about their internal control environment, and about the wider financial administration of the whole association.

“This is only part of the picture, the jigsaw is still unassembled and I’m very concerned about it, and I feel that what we want, what the whole country wants and the fans, is the money back to the FAI to the young people, to the families who week in week out go to those football matches in good and bad weather, and we need total credibility.

“Obviously, is it better have Delaney out than in?

“It is better to have him out, but I think that this is the wrong time to do it. We have to concentrate on the organisation itself and what changes are needed.

“Everybody’s entitled to due process, but the issues here are, in advance of the forensic audit being published, we have this, almost a leak, at 11.15pm at night, and I would be very unhappy with it,” he said.

Mr O’Dowd said his committee will be seeking to question FAI representatives in the coming weeks.

“Our committee discussed last week the timeline when the forensic audit is published. And yes, obviously my committee will decide what we will do and who we will bring in but I have no doubt that that will happen and will happen as quickly as possible, as transparently as possible, and we will hold the FAI as accountable as we possibly can,” he said.

Former CEO Fran Rooney said the situation “smacks of the old FAI” and was an example of “bad corporate governance policies and a lack of transparency”.

“I would be looking for full disclosure of not just the termination package but all payments that have been made to John Delaney over the last 14 years including his salary, his pension, expenses, credit card payments, benefits in kind, parachute payments,” Mr Rooney told the same programme.