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

Here’s a exchange from the Sport Ireland hearing last week that may give those with an open mind an insight into what actually has gone on with government investment in sport in this country over the last 10 years. Remember when reading this that Ireland’s investment in sport was not generous compared to the investment from private individuals in 2008 when looked at and compared to other EU countries.



Ruth Coppinger: just on levels of funding that you give to the FAI and the other sports groups; in a decade it was 35 million and it was just under 3 million in 2017, it sounds like a lot but it is only 5%..why is it lower than it would have been in 2008?

John Treacy: Because our funding was reduced in 2008 by about 25 / 27%.

RC: Because when you actually look at the FAI in terms of actual popularity in society, in your own monitor, soccer would be higher than the GAA, yet they get less money than the GAA. And I’m just wondering could the FAI also argue that they have been hit with austerity

Kieran Mulvey: after 2008; my first year, as the chairman of Sport Ireland..Irish Sports Council at the time. I had to meet with the heads of the three field sports and cut their budget in one year by 30% of all three. It has never been restored to 2008 levels. The FAI at that time were in receipt of approximately 4 plus million. It’s now at 2.565. So now, in a sense over the last 10 years, they’ve been at a steady state. The first year we got an increase in our budget was actually this year...the FAI would have a very strong argument, with us, that we are underfunding soccer in ireland at that level and I would have to agree with them. And they make good use, irrespective of the corporate issues that we’ve discussed today; the FAI make extraordinary use of the monies we give to them. And they put a lot of matching funding above and beyond; 3 or 4 times the funding we put into the programme. So I will have to say that in their defence as an organization.

Deleted User wrote: »

Well, thanks to the FAI's management and governance, right now Government investment has gone to €00.00. And it will stay there until Delaney and the FAI start explaining why a loan of 100k was needed, and not trying to hide behind third parties like Grant Thornton or Mazars.

You’re totally missing the point so I will really spell it out; there are reasons for why the FAI have cash flow problems and need bridging loans and as Sport Ireland says it themselves it is because they are “underfunded”.

It’s just a bit of a pity the government are getting a free ride on this from the media and from the people who post here who ultimately take their opinions from what they read online and in the media.

Some of us do our own research and inform ourselves.

D14Rugby wrote: »

If your organisation is underfunded then maybe its not good business to be paying your CEO multiples of the going rate

And that’s that? End of story?

Forget that the government chronically underfunds the FAI to such an extent that the chairman of Sports Ireland openly admits it.

I would respectfully suggest you need to take your head out of your arse and see the realpolitik of the context of this situation.

Deleted User wrote: »

Ah.

So John Delaney went for an injunction to save the Government from the embarrassment of the well informed, like yourself, spotting the real issue?

So what extra research do you do that makes you miss the elephants in the room, like why the need for an injunction at all if the blame lies with the Government and funding?

Why the injunction was taken out is clear to you and me. It’s bollocks to construe my argument as saying JD took it out to save the government’s face. It just shows your own cognitive dissonance to even attempt to make my argument about that.

What i am saying is the media totally ignores the story of sport and particularly soccer being underfunded. No one here knew it or mentioned it apart from me. They don’t because it’s not in the media and everyone here takes their opinions on this issue from the media and what they read online.