Fatal flaws in FAI, says report

THE Genesis chief delivered a damning indictment of the stewardship of the FAI in one throwaway sentence last night when he suggested that minutes of one of their World Cup meetings had shown that more time had been spent in discussing the accreditation arrangements and organising complimentary tickets than in dealing with preparations for the World Cup.

Alistair Gray, who led the Genesis report into the performance and role of the FAI at the recent World Cup, was at pains to stress that the organisation’s officers had excelled in many of their functions in support of the international team but his identification of weaknesses in their arrangements was devastating.

He described the overall planning of the FAI as inadequate and, most critical of all, he suggested the eventual outcome of the exercise on the field of play and commercially was more a matter of luck than effective management practice.