Trap ready to take voluntary pay cut

GIOVANNI TRAPATTONI is likely to take a voluntary pay cut in line with a range of redundancies and cost-cutting which the FAI has been forced to implement.

Sources close to the Italian say he may use a visit to Dublin next Tuesday to confirm a voluntary salary decrease — even though “he does not like discussing his terms”.

Although the FAI have declined to comment on the terms of Trapattoni’s contract, it’s understood that the issue of a wage cut has not been broached with the manager or his assistant Marco Tardelli. Such an initiative will come from the manager, it is understood.

“Mr Trapattoni will not let his team-mates down on this,” said a well placed source. “I would expect he has already done the right thing with regard to his salary level.”

Strictly speaking, the Italian duo are not members of the FAI staff and, with their wages part funded by businessman Denis O’Brien, they are regarded as a separate and special case.

In advance of his voluntary reduction, Trapattoni has already taken a reduction in pay, reportedly down from €2m to €1.8m when he signed a new contract extension ahead of the European Championship 2012 campaign.

Chief executive John Delaney is set take a cut in his wages which it is said will be “substantially” above the 5% imposed on staff members who earn over €40,000. In the recent past, Delaney has come in for considerable criticism over the scale of his salary which has been estimated at more than €400,000. The FAI have challenged the accuracy of this figure but have declined to specify what the Chief Executive has been earning up to now.

Meanwhile, although Packie Bonner technically remains a member of staff for the moment, he is definitely on his way out as head of the Technical Department.

High performance director Wim Koevermans has been mentioned as a likely replacement for Bonner but sources yesterday suggested that the Donegal man would be replaced by someone “stepping up” from within the existing ranks of the department.

The technical department of the FAI is responsible for the overall development of football in Ireland with particular focus on initiatives in the areas of coach and player training, women’s football and education.

Inevitably, there will be fears that the redundancies announced this week will impact most heavily on the game’s grassroots, with Development Officer for Schools Ian Carry, National Futsal co-ordinator Derek O’Neill, two staff in the women’s football department and regional development officers — as well as Pat Kelly, the high-profile head of the refereeing department — among those who have lost their jobs.

Yesterday, an FAI spokesperson strongly denied speculation that another raft of redundancies was imminent.