Former FAI treasurer Joe Delaney has died

Joe Delaney, assistant honorary treasurer of the FAI, accompanies Jack Charlton at Dublin airport four days after his appointment as Republic of Ireland manager. Dublin. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile

JOE DELANEY, the former treasurer of the Football Association of Ireland, has died.

The former Waterford United FC Chairman suffered a heart attack, before he passed away in hospital this week.

The 82-year-old father of the former FAI CEO John Delaney was an Honorary President of the Munster Football Association and Honorary Life President of St Michael’s FC in Tipperary.

He served as chairman of Waterford United from 1976 to 1982, having been a director of the club from 1973. He grew up in Marymount, Ferrybank in Waterford.   

Joe Delaney was certainly one of the characters of the game of football in Ireland.

In March 1996 newspaper reports about a ticketing scandal emerged in which £200,000 of revenue had “disappeared”, and that a ticket agent in London had made off with the money.

It emerged that an FAI board member had made up for the shortfall.

The story developed that over the course of the World Cups of 1990 and 1994 that the FAI had bought tickets for Rep of Ireland matches from a character known as ‘George the Greek’ It emerged that Joe Delaney had been dealing with the agent, who went under a number of different names.

In March of ’96 Delaney issued a statement to say that he had personally provided £110,000 to cover some of the losses of ticketing revenue – he subsequently paid a total of £210,000.

In a press statement, Joe Delaney explained that he didn’t know he had been dealing with a tout and that he regretted misleading the Board. His involvement with the FAI came to an end.

While the controversy may have dogged Joe Delaney in his latter years with the FAI, he was seen as a character to his many friends, one of whom said his mind had remained sharp despite ill health in recent years.

He is pre-deceased by his wife Joan, and was father to Joanne, John, Paul, Mary-Pat and Jane, as well as grandfather of nine.

Joe Delaney’s funeral will take place at St Michael’s Church Tipperary Town at 11:30am for Mass at 12pm on Saturday, followed by a private cremation.