John Delaney at the FAI Thread - (Mod Notes in OP)

beertons

Tennis balls?

Bowling balls would make a statement.

Sheep breeder

Berserker wrote: »

Agree with you on that.



The GAA has a ridiculous level of control on sport in Ireland but it is still possible to be successful. The IRFU has done a wonderful job developing their game over the last 10-20 years, so it can be done. Given the popularity of football in Ireland and the number of people who play it, it could be the biggest game in the country but the FAI and the clubs themselves need a massive overhaul in terms of personnel and massive investment is needed from private businesses. There are far too many top level clubs in the country, for starters. Need to look at merging some of them, in my opinion.

In my local national school where our kids go to school in the last 10 years. The local gaa club and rugby club have a coach going in to coach the kids and the county board and Leinster coach are also in on regular basis.
As for the soccer not once in that period has any coach from any end gone into the school to promote the game. Not even from the local club who are always fund raising to try get by.
This tells the tail of John the hand out Delaney and the way the fai is run.

Zico !

Delaney is the FAI he makes all the decisions regarding who goes where he is the board aswell -this is our biggest chance ever to get rid of this spoofer only way we can get rid of him is if sport ireland threaten to withdraw grants

Sebastian Dangerfield

Read some speculation online that the FAI have spread this tennis ball thing as an excuse to search people for anti-Delaney flags on the way in. There doesn't seem to be any mention of trying to start a tennis ball protest from any fan groups, I follow most on Twitter and haven't seen it anywhere.

Could be nonsense, but I wouldnt rule it out.

Berserker

beertons wrote: »

Tennis balls?

Bowling balls would make a statement.

Cricket balls would be an even better statement or hurling balls if you wanted to keep things Irish. Hard to sneak a bowling ball into a football ground.

Sheep breeder wrote: »

In my local national school where our kids go to school in the last 10 years. The local gaa club and rugby club have a coach going in to coach the kids and the county board and Leinster coach are also in on regular basis.
As for the soccer not once in that period has any coach from any end gone into the school to promote the game. Not even from the local club who are always fund raising to try get by.
This tells the tail of John the hand out Delaney and the way the fai is run.

Is that his fault though? It's the FAI's fault, I would say. Getting the clear impression over the last 48 hours that the executive as a whole are the problem and removing JD is not going to make things any better. Lad on TV3 last night was saying that JD is a great man to call if you are looking to get a set of goalposts. Wtf?

Sebastian Dangerfield wrote: »

Read some speculation online that the FAI have spread this tennis ball thing as an excuse to search people for anti-Delaney flags on the way in. There doesn't seem to be any mention of trying to start a tennis ball protest from any fan groups, I follow most on Twitter and haven't seen it anywhere.

Could be nonsense, but I wouldnt rule it out.

Wouldn't make much sense posting your protest plans online, where everyone can read about them and the authorities can put a plan in place to put a stop to them.

uRbaN

Sheep breeder wrote: »

In my local national school where our kids go to school in the last 10 years. The local gaa club and rugby club have a coach going in to coach the kids and the county board and Leinster coach are also in on regular basis.
As for the soccer not once in that period has any coach from any end gone into the school to promote the game. Not even from the local club who are always fund raising to try get by.
This tells the tail of John the hand out Delaney and the way the fai is run.

In my local National School, our GAA GPO runs a programme for all juvenile classes.

So too do the FAI in conjunction with our local soccer club. So there are programmes, maybe it just depends on what resources are available regionally.

The rugby club don't, although there is a thriving club in the town with a Leinster CCRO.

givyjoe

Berserker wrote: »

A new external CEO will 'manage' him out of the role fairly quickly.



No disrespect to players returning back to the league here but it's all about success and visibility on the European stage. Did Rovers' gate increase when Damien Duff returned play for them?



You are missing the point I was making. The clubs need to find people who can turn them into successful brands and companies will start and want to be associated with them. The old guard in the clubs need to be willing to accept progress and change though.



Firstly, I see no issue with merging clubs. LoI fans don't differ in terms of identity on a macro level. It's not like you have clubs with different religious or political ethea.

Secondly, the RoI has developed world class players down through the years. McGrath, Brady, Giles and Keane are names that pop into my head immediately.



You suspect that the later is more likely but you don't know that. It's not uncommon for employers to subsidise the living costs of employees, as I said before. I'm baffled as to why people are so caught up on this point. There are plenty of people in the country who have benefits like this.

You're comparing apples and oranges with employers. It's absolutely baffling that you think the FAI are comparable to global organisations, making millions and billions in profits. The FAI cant pay its own bills, and 'needs' CEO to bail it out. Paying the CEO's rent on top of an enormous salary, is absolutely ludicrous. Do you really need this spelled out to you?

The vast, vast, vast, vast, vast majority of employers DO NOT pay their employees rent. There is usually a justifiable business case for it when they do, there is NO business case for the FAI paying it's CEO's rent.

TheRiverman

€3000 per month rent,sounds like the poor f...er is living in very poor accommodation.LOL.

listermint

TheRiverman wrote: »

€3000 per month rent,sounds like the poor f...er is living in very poor accommodation.LOL.

In wickow.... Goes a decent way.

Dots1982

listermint wrote: »

In wickow.... Goes a decent way.

It was in malahide and maybe one other property at a different time that was possibly in Wicklow.

Sebastian Dangerfield

givyjoe wrote: »

You're comparing apples and oranges with employers. It's absolutely baffling that you think the FAI are comparable to global organisations, making millions and billions in profits. The FAI cant pay its own bills, and 'needs' CEO to bail it out. Paying the CEO's rent on top of an enormous salary, is absolutely ludicrous. Do you really need this spelled out to you?

If the cashflow thing is true, it's scandalous. What if he didn't have the personal wealth to bail them out - how could he as CEO lead them to such a perilous position?

If it's not true, and there's something untoward involved in this transaction, it's even worse. As Fran Rooney pointed out, the organisation would have extensive banking facilities. Why not obtain a short term overdraft? If the purpose of the transaction was to hide his own mismanagement, he should be fired. Personally I expect something even worse to come out.

I reckon Delaney hopes to get past tonight and wait for everyone to forget about the Irish setup again. Hopefully the Times and others keep up the pressure. I don't have too much faith in Sport Ireland. I never thought I'd hear myself finding use for them, but I'd love to see him in front of a panel of SF politicians looking for answers :-)

joeysoap

Realistically what clubs could merge? Often the ‘local’ derby is the highlight of the seasons matches. And you can’t merge clubs counties apart.

Unimaginable merging City and Limerick, Sligo and Galway, Harps and Derry etc,
and it’s not going to happen on a more local level either , Rovers and Bray, Dundalk and Drogheda etc not going to happen.

joeysoap

Dots1982 wrote: »

It was in malahide and maybe one other property at a different time that was possibly in Wicklow.

Grainne Seoige’s house in Wicklow mentioned in the papers . He’s bought a house in Wicklow for €875,000 according to the same paper.

Dots1982

Not a anti or pro FAI point but just since it’s being talked about; the FAI have 52 national development officers in the country, the GAA have 300.

D14Rugby

Berserker wrote: »

Need to look at merging some of them, in my opinion.

Berserker wrote: »

You are missing the point I was making. The clubs need to find people who can turn them into successful brands and companies will start and want to be associated with them. The old guard in the clubs need to be willing to accept progress and change though.

Firstly, I see no issue with merging clubs. LoI fans don't differ in terms of identity on a macro level. It's not like you have clubs with different religious or political ethea.

Secondly, the RoI has developed world class players down through the years. McGrath, Brady, Giles and Keane are names that pop into my head immediately.

You suspect that the later is more likely but you don't know that. It's not uncommon for employers to subsidise the living costs of employees, as I said before. I'm baffled as to why people are so caught up on this point. There are plenty of people in the country who have benefits like this.

Clubs are trying to do that but again it costs money and the FAI just take money don't give any.

Merging clubs? Macro levels? Do you want to go tell Liverpool and Everton, Man United and City, Tottenham and Arsenal to merge? Didn't think so.
Oh you see no issue? Full ****ing speed ahead so :rolleyes:

These players were all produced in spite of the FAI not because of them by any stretch of the imagination.

What is uncommon is for a company to issue redundancies cut the wages of its employees while screaming from the rooftops that the CEO has taken one too, it's mentioned every single time Delaney opens his mouth about money, just for it to emerge that he hasn't, a percentage of his pay just goes directly on rent now.

Dots1982

The ideas from non LOI posters put forward here about improving the LOI have been completely unfeasible at best and hilariously unrealistic at worst.

osarusan

Dots1982 wrote: »

The ideas from non LOI posters put forward here about improving the LOI have been completely unfeasible at best and hilariously unrealistic at worst.

It has always been the same.

People with very little knowledge or experience of LOI thinking they know how to fix things.

And most of the time, the suggestions show that they have absolutely no idea just how precarious the very existence of so many clubs is, and just how much money there is (or isn't) at LOI level.

Pedro K

Merge clubs. That old chestnut. Rovers are 120 years old. They first played Bohs in 1915 and the rivalry has grown from there. Some would have us forget all of that and join hands and become Dublin United or some such entity that they still wouldn't support anyway.

Of course, there already was a Dublin City football club. It didn't end well.

Brock Turnpike

Dots1982 wrote: »

The ideas from non LOI posters put forward here about improving the LOI have been completely unfeasible at best and hilariously unrealistic at worst.

Have you ever posted anything positive on Boards? Complete misery.

chicorytip

joeysoap wrote: »

How do you explain Dundalk being ranked 172 in Europe ( ahead of Aberdeen. Rangers, Hibernians. Strum Graz, Panathanaikos etc etc ? )

https://www.footballseeding.com/club-ranking/a2018-2019/

That is a national ranking..If Dundalk F.C. was an English club it would be ranked on a par with a conference team at best, based on it's current size, fanbase and standard of player it currently possesses.. Do you seriously believe Dundalk would wallop the likes of Wrexham or Grimsby, for example?
That's the standard of the LOI.
Champions League last sixteen?? Dream on you romantics.

murpho999

chicorytip wrote: »

That is a national ranking..If Dundalk F.C. was an English club it would be ranked on a par with a conference team at best, based on it's current size, fanbase and standard of player it currently possesses.. Do you seriously believe Dundalk would wallop the likes of Wrexham or Grimsby, for example?
That's the standard of the LOI.
Champions League last sixteen?? Dream on you romantics.

Shamrock Rovers got to Europa League group stage one year.

Couldn't see a Conference team doing that.

awec

chicorytip wrote: »

That is a national ranking..If Dundalk F.C. was an English club it would be ranked on a par with a conference team at best, based on it's current size, fanbase and standard of player it currently possesses.. Do you seriously believe Dundalk would wallop the likes of Wrexham or Grimsby, for example?
That's the standard of the LOI.
Champions League last sixteen?? Dream on you romantics.

I don't watch the LOI, but I do watch the Irish League, and both leagues on this island would operate at a similar standard, with the LOI probably edging ahead ever so slightly as the lesser clubs in the LOI are probably a bit better than the lesser clubs in the IL.

The notion that the standard is at the level of the English national league level could only be held by someone who knows absolutely nothing about football.

The standard in the league would be even higher if the league was properly run by the FAI. Young players wouldn't feel the need to jump ship ASAP over to England / Scotland if there were proper pathways in place in their own national league.

osarusan

Brock Turnpike wrote: »

And therein lies the problem with a massive amount of LOI fans. A refusal to accept that they need to try something different in order to attract people to games. The Marquee player thing is just one element if what I suggested. It might not be the right way to go about things, or could be the thing that drives attendence increases. But you will never know due to the reluctance of so many around the league to change.

This is a very common refrain though.

Somebody comes along with a suggestion that LOI fans know isn't feasible at all, gets told it's not feasible, and laments how LOI fans aren't open to change.

For the most part, the suggestions require massive, and I mean massive, injections of cash, when the reality is that virtually nobody, anywhere, has any interest in investing in LOI.

Anybody with any suggestions should be first asking - where is the money for this going to come from?

secman

Can we stay on topic here, it's about John (Sepp ) Delaney , hopefully theres more to come from the 3 whistleblowers, if we are to believe the rumours. Great to see him somewhat on the rack, hopefully he will not worm out of this. Fingers crossed.

TheCitizen

chicorytip wrote: »

That is a national ranking..If Dundalk F.C. was an English club it would be ranked on a par with a conference team at best, based on it's current size, fanbase and standard of player it currently possesses.. Do you seriously believe Dundalk would wallop the likes of Wrexham or Grimsby, for example?
That's the standard of the LOI.
Champions League last sixteen?? Dream on you romantics.

Who mentioned Champions league last 16? The old strawman comment thrown in, mention something nobody else did to support your silly erroneous argument. Your comment number 708 is astonishing in it's sheer stupidity, it's laughable that you've been trying to justify yourself since that.

expectationlost

why have SIPTU quoted Denis Hynes as saying

SIPTU Sport Sector Organiser, Denis Hynes, said: “It has been widely reported that in 2016 the FAI began paying rent of €3,000 per month for a house used by John Delaney.

https://www.siptu.ie/media/pressreleases2019/featurednews/fullstory_21175_en.html

Denis Hynes did not say that on RTE NAT1 ift.tt/2CEgtUD

and neither did Mark Tighe, he reported " John Delaney, who quit as chief executive of the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) last night, has been living in houses rented by the association for much of the past decade. " https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/fai-chief-john-delaney-steps-aside-amid-financial-queries-7bdp9j2p6

SIPTU press statement did not say "in WIcklow" https://www.siptu.ie/media/pressreleases2019/mainnews/fullstory_21175_en.html
its all over the press now that the FAI began paying his rent in 2016

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/some-fai-employees-annoyed-over-delaney-financial-arrangements-1.3837958

He said staff were “infuriated” at reports that in 2016, the FAI began paying rent of €3,000 per month for a house used by John Delaney. “This was during a period when the organisation was claiming to be unable to restore the pay and conditions of employment of our members due to financial constraints.”

https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/fai-staff-call-for-clarification-of-associations-financial-arrangements-with-former-ceo-john-delaney-913139.html

It appeared, he said, the FAI had began making rental payments in 2016

https://www.echolive.ie/nationalnews/FAI-staff-call-for-statement-on-exact-financial-arrangements-with-former-CEO-John-Delaney-75afa603-8a4b-4da4-9108-1df7512e171a-ds

Siptu Sport Sector Organiser, Denis Hynes, said: “It has been widely reported that in 2016 the FAI began paying rent of €3,000 per month for a house used by John Delaney.

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2019/0325/1038411-john-delaney-fai/

SIPTU members working for the Football Association of Ireland are asking for an explanation of why they had pay cuts at a time that the organisation began paying rent for CEO John Delaney.

https://extra.ie/2019/03/25/sport/soccernews/fai-workers-turn-on-delaney-over-e3k-rent-after-pay-cuts

During 2012 staff, including the CEO, were hit with reductions of between 10 and 15% in income, although in 2016 the FAI began paying for Delaney’s €3k per month Wicklow home.

https://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/soccer/soccer-news/angry-fai-staff-want-explanations-14184975

SIPTU Sport Sector Organiser, Denis Hynes, said: “It has been widely reported that in 2016 the FAI began paying rent of €3,000 per month for a house used by John Delaney.


Did SIPU not mind that his rent was being paid earlier then 2016?

D14Rugby

chicorytip wrote: »

That is a national ranking..If Dundalk F.C. was an English club it would be ranked on a par with a conference team at best, based on it's current size, fanbase and standard of player it currently possesses.. Do you seriously believe Dundalk would wallop the likes of Wrexham or Grimsby, for example?
That's the standard of the LOI.
Champions League last sixteen?? Dream on you romantics.

Firstly fanbase has nothing to do with a teams quality.
Dundalk would absolutely wipe the floor with the likes of Wrexham and Grimsby with the greatest of respect to them. Just look at last season. Rovers finished 3rd and by a distance but still in Europe managed to beat the Swedish champions to be over 90 minutes with their multitude of internationals.

So please shut up talking ****e about the standard of the league when it's clear and obvious you havent attended a game in at the very least a very long time if ever at all.

Awesomeness

chicorytip wrote: »

That is a national ranking..If Dundalk F.C. was an English club it would be ranked on a par with a conference team at best, based on it's current size, fanbase and standard of player it currently possesses.. Do you seriously believe Dundalk would wallop the likes of Wrexham or Grimsby, for example?
That's the standard of the LOI.
Champions League last sixteen?? Dream on you romantics.

Dundalk and Rovers have both qualified for the Europa league group stage in the past few years. Dundalk even went into the latter rounds with a chance of progressing.

Most of the players that leave the LOI now to go to England are going to Championship or League 1 clubs.

Look at the last few players that left Dundalk.
McMillan - doing OK in SPL
Towell - playing regular in Championship
Horgan - Playing well in SPL - Irish International
Boyle - Playing in SPL after moving to Championship.
Even dylan connolloy who couldn't get into the Dundalk team got a move to league 1.

Other players have left from other clubs and are playing at a level a lot higher than conference. Maguire, Burke etc

Berserker

Can one of the LoI lads lay out your vision for the future of the domestic Irish football (ideal scenario) and the international teams in a post, please?

Dots1982 wrote: »

The ideas from non LOI posters put forward here about improving the LOI have been completely unfeasible at best and hilariously unrealistic at worst.

Whoever takes over as CEO after Delaney is going to have a massive battle on their hands. I'm not quite sure what these LoI lads want. They want facilities, crowds, stadia etc, which will enable players to stay here and develop into top class international players but they don't want to change the current structures, which are not going to achieve those goals. Not sure where the wages for these players is going to come from. Top class international players are not cheap.

expectationlost wrote: »

Did SIPU not mind that his rent was being paid earlier then 2016?

Probably not. Now that it's an issue in the public domain, which may annoy their membership they do.

D14Rugby

Berserker wrote: »

Whoever takes over as CEO after Delaney is going to have a massive battle on their hands. I'm not quite sure what these LoI lads want. They want facilities, crowds, stadia etc, which will enable players to stay here and develop into top class international players but they don't want to change the current structures, which are not going to achieve those goals.



Probably not. Now that it's an issue in the public domain, which may annoy their membership they do.

The one thing LOI fans do want to change is the current structures.

So please shut the **** up you haven't a clue what you're talking about.