Expansion of FAI board moves closer after AGM deferred until December

EXPANSION: An expansion of the FAI Board from 12 to 14 is likely to be rubberstamped at an EGM next month with a view to reaching 40% gender balance by the end of 2023. File pic: Matt Browne/Sportsfile

An expansion of the FAI Board from 12 to 14 is likely to be rubberstamped at an EGM next month with a view to reaching 40% gender balance by the end of 2023.

The association has struggled to attract the required fifth female either through football channels and as a successor to outgoing independent Chairperson Roy Barrett.

Therefore, they have postponed the scheduled AGM of October 21 to ‘early December’; with an EGM pencilled in for November to endorse changes in board composition.

After weeks of silence, on Friday the FAI finally contacted their supreme body, the General Assembly, admitting the risk of losing Government funding influenced their deferral decision.

Junior Minister for Sport Thomas Byrne has threatened sporting bodies who don’t hit 40% by December with half their annual funding being culled, which the FAI admits would have ‘serious financial and other implications’.

In the email to their 145 members, the potential drop in core state aid is estimated at €4.3m, compounded by significant cuts in programme, affiliate, league, and club funding.

They detail three board meetings during which consideration was given to extending the deadline for nominations but not acted upon.

All six of the candidates were male - they being Paul Cooke and Joe O’Brien for President, uncontested John Finnegan as Vice-President, the returning Dave Moran from the amateur pillar, Nixon Morton for national bodies, and Tom Browne as the rep of the schoolboys/girls sector.

It is known that the decision not to proceed with this line-up was carried by a marginal 6-5 majority, leading to conflicting legal advice on the board’s authority to interfere with established procedures.

They are instead 'working towards an alternative approach to board composition designed to address the obstacles encountered to date and which improve the prospect, subject to member approval, of achieving the 40% target.' That’s believed to be based on swelling the board to 14, including no less than six females, thereby reaching the quota.

A change to the constitution lodged by the Irish Universities Football Union (IUFU) with the FAI company secretary Gerry Egan has advocated that development, while there’s also been debate at board level about splitting the 14 evenly into seven independents and football personnel apiece.

Minister Byrne last week stated he no objection to organisations increasing their board numbers to facilitate compliance, a tactic employed by other major sporting codes. Pushing the AGM out until December means outgoing directors, such as Barrett and President Gerry McAnaney, will enjoy longer stays around the top table of the Irish game.