'No disrespect was intended': FAI bow to funding pressure by confirming Oireachtas visit

The Association previously withdrew from a Leinster House hearing with five days’ notice.

FAI chief David Courell will tell lawmakers that he 'would like to reassure the committee that no disrespect was intended'.

There’s been another twist in the FAI’s ongoing Oireachtas committee battle with the delegation confirming their attendance at Wednesday’s scheduled meeting in Kildare Street.

The embattled football body on Friday shifted from their initial indication by withdrawing from the hearing with five days’ notice after “doubting the committee’s intentions”.

Minister for Sports Patrick O’Donovan led the outcry on Tuesday, emphasising that non-attendance by a body in receipt of significant taxpayers’ funds was not an option.

He stopped short of threatening the suspension of funding, an instrument previously unleashed during standoffs, but the inference was clear.

Not only did the government financially bail the FAI out of a crisis in early 2020 but they doubled the core funding to €5.8m.

That annual payout was extended through the agreement of a second Memorandum of Understanding last year.

Furthermore, the association’s League of Ireland department has been lobbying the State for investment to develop a new club-led academy system to produce home-grown players in a post-Brexit era when talent cannot join UK clubs until they reach 18.

That €8m-per-annum plea has reached the stage of being independently audited by Belgian company DoublePass but this latest saga casts doubt on a positive outcome when the Budget is unveiled on October 7.

Committee chairman Alan Kelly TD said he hoped the minister’s stance would encourage the FAI to review their position by turning up to face questions on safeguarding and other governance matters.

Deputy Kelly revealed during Monday’s RTÉ’s Drivetime radio show that he’d been contacted by FAI chairman Tony Keohane.

The representative for Tipperary North TD said the FAI were reconsidering their position, prompting another change of mind from within the boardroom.

However, while the original quartet of Keohane, chief executive David Courell, president Paul Cooke and HR Director Aoife Rafferty will attend, the FAI have refused to add two of the three additional witnesses from their staff sought.

Safeguarding manager Kirsten Pakes becomes the fifth member of the delegation but neither Gareth Maher, media manager of the FAI women’s squad, nor Eileen Gleeson, will participate.

Ms Gleeson is the former Ireland women’s team manager currently taking an equality case against the FAI on equality grounds arising from his term that ended with her being dismissed last December.

She activated a fallback clause to remain within the organisation’s employment but only recently returned to the office in a newly-created role as head of football strategic insights and planning. Her desire to attend was quashed by what she branded a directive from the FAI’s HR department.

This was almost the second time for the FAI to defer facing a grilling from elected officials.

Committee members have disagreed with the FAI citing an ongoing An Garda Síochána investigation into horrific cases against female footballers, exposed in last year’s joint investigation by RTÉ and the Sunday Independent, as reason to sidestep the visit.

In their belated confirmation on attendance on Tuesday afternoon, the FAI again implored the committee to “not stray into matters relating to specific cases which are the subject of ongoing Garda investigations.” The invitation stemmed from Cork North Central TD Pádraig O'Sullivan’s comments made in June, spoken under Dáil privilege, which questioned the FAI’s awareness timeline of the historical questions. An internal email chain triggered valid points.

“I’d also like to acknowledge the uncertainty over our appearance here today and would like to reassure the committee that no disrespect was intended,” Courell wrote in the FAI’s opening statement for Wednesday’s lunchtime session.

“It was borne out of a genuine concern that the association has had regarding some of the contradictory messaging we have received about the scope of this hearing.”