The end’s in sight

It feels to me like the endgame has come quickly in the FAI saga.

This week has seen huge changes to the Football Association of Ireland that have been decades coming. John Delaney has stepped aside from his new role of Executive Vice President. Two very long-standing board members have resigned and on Tuesday it was revealed that the entire board will be gone by July!

Looking back though, the saga has been running now for over a month.

But what’s a month when John Delaney was made chief executive 14 years ago? What’s four weeks when the Genesis Report which came out in 2002. That was never implemented fully.

Some of its recommendations, like the inclusion of independent board members is only likely to take place later this year, after root and branch reform.

Today is 18 April. It was on 17 March John Delaney's €100,000 bridging loan to the FAI was first reported.

Two days later Sport Ireland say they were not notified about the FAI's financial issues.

On Tuesday they faced the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport all day. I listened to a fair amount of it.

What was most striking to me was how little Sport Ireland knew about the FAI’s ongoing financial issues and the fallout and resignations. They simply couldn’t answer a lot of the questions because they didn’t know the answers.

The Chief Executive of Sport Ireland John Treacy has said he believes that John Delaney is still on the FAI’s payroll, although he stepped aside from his current role this week. But he didn’t know for sure.

“I believe he is still on the payroll while this investigation by Mazaars is going on,” he said.

Sinn Féin and Cork North Central TD Jonathan O'Brien asked if Mr Delaney has signed a new contract in his new position of FAI Executive Vice President. John Treacy and Kieran Mulvey of Sport Ireland said they did not know.

Mr O'Brien said that he is becoming “increasingly frustrated as we had a situation last Wednesday where an individual who was just two week in the job was actually under more pressure than someone who had previously held a position in the FAI for about 15 years.

“That just shows the level of dysfunctionality within the system. We now have a situation where two board members are gone. A further eight board members have indicated they are going to step down. And the individual at the centre of all the controversy is only stepping aside.”

When this situation began a month ago, I didn’t think any real change would happen to any great degree in the short term. The FAI’s board are well insulated and haven’t faced much challenges in years. Most of them have been on the board for more than 13 years.

This is a stunning turnaround. This week the FAI President Donal Conway wrote to the Minster for Sport Shane Ross and said the board would be gone by July.

“It is the intention that the existing board will step down to allow for a new board to be constituted in the best interests of football.”

Revolution can come slowly but at great speed. Hopefully a civil war won’t follow.

Irish football has a chance to clean up its act, support its national leagues properly and give its national teams the best possible chances. Let’s make sure that happens.