FAI seek voluntary job cuts with compulsory to follow

Legacy debt of €40m continues to impair the FAI's financial autonomy.

A general view of the Football Association of Ireland Offices at the FAI National Training Centre in Abbotstown, Dublin. Photo by Matt Browne/Sportsfile

The FAI could shed a third of its 251-workforce after admitting significant redundancies are required to deliver “increased financial sustainability”.

Annual payroll costs soared to €15m in the latest accounts and, coupled with the absence of major tournament prize-money stretching towards a decade, expenditure reviews have been underway.

The appointment as chief operating officer in February of Christina Kenny, an executive with a track record for the type of transformation broached by the FAI on Wednesday, heightened concerns of looming cuts.

It corresponded with chief executive David Courell switching position from dismissing talk of layoffs last October to leaving open the possibility in his next media briefing in February.

Redundancies will firstly be voluntary, with expressions of interest sought from applicants by an October deadline.

It’s understood the initial target is 30 staffers to go but application doesn't guarantee acceptance. The package on offer is five weeks' pay per year of service, capped at €600 per week.

Then, after ‘redeployment’, they’ll upgrade to compulsory.

At that stage approaching Christmas, Ireland’s prospects of reaching next year’s World Cup – earning around €11m plus ancillary benefits – will be known. They’ll complete the six-game campaign with either a direct transatlantic ticket, entry into the March playoff or a barren period before another fixture of consequence.

“The transformation programme is informed by extensive research including UEFA benchmarking and has been shaped with the benefit of external guidance from specialist consultancy firms,” read a corporate jargon heavy statement, released directly after staff were addressed by Courell at a remote ‘townhall’ meeting.

“The findings make it clear that the FAI does not currently have the required framework and specific skillsets to implement vital strategies (including the FAI Football Pathways Plan) and to meet the evolving needs of Irish football – at all levels of the game.

“The association must undertake this process to ensure that all clubs, communities and counties around the country are best served and that Irish football can create a playing culture and pathway to compete as a nation, provide positive participation experiences for all, and continue to develop the game at a local, regional, national and international level.” Details provided by Courell to staff were sketchy. What exactly the hierarchy wants the FAI to look as after this period was undisclosed.

Most of the FAI employees are development officers, tasked with fostering the game at local level.

Their jobs were protected following the previous period of FAI turmoil in early 2020, as then sports minister Shane Ross made a state bailout conditional on low and middle-paid employees being retained. No such clause was contained in the successor Memorandum of Understanding hatched last November.

Siptu, representing those front-facing members, are now calling for that change to be repealed.

Adrian Kane, their services divisional organiser, reflected the annoyance among the rank and file. “The FAI has shown utter contempt for its staff by outsourcing critical decisions about their futures to faceless consultants while failing to engage in any proper consultation process.

“This is an insult to the workers who have given their all to the organisation and to football in Ireland.

“The FAI has a duty to be transparent and accountable to its employees, yet it has kept them in the dark while threatening mass redundancies.

““We are calling on the FAI to immediately reveal the full extent of the redundancies it is planning, including the number of jobs at risk and the criteria being used.

“Workers have a right to know what is happening to their livelihoods and how these decisions are being made. The FAI has shown a total lack of respect for its employees, for our union, and for the wider footballing community.”

Staff are aghast at the workforce being a priority area when the FAI have been spending millions on consultants – from media to marketing and legal – over recent years. It’s understood the company engaged for this exercise is London-based CAA Portas. Their tagline is “transforming the world through sport”.