Furlong and Pottie in talks with Treacy

NEW SJAI chairperson Patricia Furlong and acting SJAI director general Liz Pottie will today discuss a road plan for show jumping when they meet Irish Sports Council chief executive John Treacy.

Also present will be representatives of the Equestrian Federation of Ireland (EFI).

Confirming discussions would take place, Mr Treacy said the ISC was taking a positive view.

The SJAI was stunned in December, when the EFI secretary general Dan Butler sent a damning letter on behalf of EFI president Charles Powell outlining misdemeanours it claimed had thrown bad light on show jumping. The EFI is withholding State funding - funnelled through it by the Irish Sports Council - from the SJAI, demanding it re-start the process to find a chef d’equipe and also start an independent process to find a new director general.

It is also possible that the EFI could deny the SJAI any role in senior international team selection.

Meanwhile, confident it will have an input in 2006 - which features the World Equestrian Games - the SJAI have named Pauric Geraghty as chairman of its international selectors, who also include Brian Gormley (Leinster), James Tarrant (Munster), James Kiernan (Ulster) and Paul Duffy Jnr (Connacht).

Another crucial meeting takes place next Monday, with the EFI executive gathering for the first time since Mr Butler issued the EFI demands.

The EFI executive is made up of representatives of its affiliate organisations and the four SJAI representatives - Ms Furlong, Mr Geraghty, Charles Hanley and Coreen Conway - have been instructed to put forward the views of the SJAI.

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