Niall Quinn: 'It borders on discrimination giving money to one set of sports and not football'
HAND IT OVER: Former Republic of Ireland international Niall Quinn, is presented with a Hall of Fame award by Paul Cooke. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile.
Niall Quinn feels its high time football received its fair share of the betting tax, slating the Government’s policy as “discrimination”.
Two percent levied of all wagers raises around €105m per annum and the State have attempted to disassociate this from the Horse and Greyhound racing fund payout which equates to €99.1m.
Quinn, who won 92 Ireland caps, has a major issue with one sector receiving exchequer funding when the overwhelming pattern in recent years is the proportion laid on football increasing.
Estimates from official sources vary but it’s understood to be heading towards majority football bets in Ireland nowadays and yet no slice of the tax revenue generated is distributed.
The Government insists the taxes are funnelled into the overall revenue pot and disbursed through various channels including the grant aid paid to the Football Association of Ireland.
Quinn was vocal on the disparity during the nine months he spent as deputy chief executive of the FAI, in the immediate aftermath of the 2019 governance and financial crisis.
The association is hopeful, but not certain, that their plea for €8m of annual funding towards developing the academy system is granted by the end of the year but Quinn believes its long overdue.
“There is a great opportunity here in time for football to have its own industry,” said the 58-year-old, due to appear with John Giles and Liam Brady as the Three Wise Men at Vicar Street on Monday week, a fundraiser for former players.
“That’s something we’ve never had. My big message is to look at what it did for horse racing, making it grow and become stronger.
“Over 30 years, Ireland is the best in the world by a mile. Guess what? People bet on football as well but we see none of it.
“It borders on the point of discrimination by giving money to one set of sports but not giving it to football when huge amounts of money is bet on their games.”
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This pot is not a new target but the FAI’s approach is to seek an increase of one percent, generating €30m year for football.
Although Fianna Fáil included this hike in their manifesto, there was surprise that the measure was absent once the Programme for Government was published.
Last week, FF Senator Robert Troy indicated the strategy of any rise in the October Budget would be guided by the tax advisory group.
That body, the Tax Strategy Group (TSG), has again broached an 0.5 percent rise to deliver €25m. The TSG is chaired by the department of finance and its conclusions form opinions for budgetary purposes.
“There was a bit of fear in the air from political people I spoke to that it is hard to fund the League of Ireland because it is privately owned,” noted Quinn about his dealings with Leinster House powerbrokers.
“But my point was were all the horses that won in Cheltenham owned by the County Councils?
“Charlie McCreevy, the former finance minister, was brave and he stood out for creating the racing industry but the world has flipped a little bit. Digital betting has come in and taken a huge chunk out of the market.
“There could be a brave sports minister or Government who realises how successful the levy has been for racing so let’s do it for football.”
Freedom of Information documents have shown that requests in recent years for the increase from the sporting side of Dáil Éireann have been rejected by finance. Addressing problem gamblers has been cited as the priority but Quinn isn’t having that excuse.
“I understand problem gambling but the day the Government stops taking the levy is the day I’ll stop saying give it to football,” he pointed out.
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