Kilcoyne loses marathon battle to hold office

DESPITE a bravura performance which lasted until almost 3.0 a.m., the president of the FAI, Louis Kilcoyne, was beaten in a vote of no confidence at last night's senior council meeting. Motions in the other four officers resulted in treasurer Joe Delaney suffering a similar fate to Kilcoyne and in the reinstatement of Michael Hyland, Des Casey and Pat Quigley. Quigley has assumed the presidency.

The first inkling of Kilcoyne's defeat came at 2.54 a.m. when Eamon Dunphy emerged from the inner sanctum where friends, aides and RTE personnel were stationed throughout the night of the long wait. "Louis got the backheel," said a glum Dunphy. "Yes, he's gone.

Nervous tension and the sheer length of the night brought a flurry of one-liners and howls of laughter outside the room where Kilcoyne and his family were stationed. Some were almost distraught. It wasn't very pretty.

At 2.25 Kilcoyne had emerged for his second trip to the toilet of the night, looking noticeably redder around the eyes than for his first such sortie seven hours earlier. But he was still sanguine as the cameras and the photographers and the reporters followed him along the foyer of the Westbury Hotel. "I'm just doing it again."

He appeared to be almost enjoying it, and had apparently played a blinder from, his chairman's seat, conducting affairs with his customary charisma. But this was to prove the nadir of a colourful charismatic career in football administration, lower even than the sale of Milltown.

As for the other officers who had resigned last Monday night, there, were still motions not accepting, their resignations. Delaney's was accepted, but those of Hyland, Casey and Quigley were not, meaning they retain their respective portfolios. The votes were conducted by secret ballot.

Until the dramatic denouement, the meeting was transcended by the interim Bastow Charlton report into the FAI's ticket management at USA `94. The debate surrounding its contents, the ensuing questioning of Barstow Charleton representatives and the lengthy responses from the five officers dragged the meeting into the wee hours of the morning.

One could almost hear the wagons being circled inside. Those excursions to the toilet almost became the best yardstick of the mood inside. Known Kilcoyne supporters seemed to be smiling the widest. One could almost sense the mood inside switching toward the beleaguered president.

But, though apparently support within the senior council for Kilcoyne was rising steadily throughout the night, further evidence of the continuing divide within the officer board was emphasised Des Casey emerged at around 1.15 am.

Without saying so in so many words, Casey made it abundantly clear that in the interests of "transparency he would have preferred Bastow Charleton's interim report into the FAI's USA `94 ticket policy to be made public - or at least areas of it.

"I believe that when the full report is published it should still be made available. This is an interim report. We are not officers. We have resigned so we can't judge what should be done. This is a company which is going to be in place in Merrion Square for five or six weeks. I don't want to pre-empt it.

"But it's got to be totally transparent not only for the council who cover the entire spectrum of the game from schoolboy and league level, but I believe also for the public. What has happened in the last 10 years is that the FAI has become the property of the country and that's largely down to the success of Jack's Army and the success that we enjoyed in that time and the public have the right to know. I think that's got to be an underlining factor.

"You are already aware that there has been a confidentiality ban on the report and I'm not prepared to make any, specific comment on the report.

Nevertheless Casey intimated that he was not entirely, happy with the contents of the interim report. "I commented on certain elements on it that I felt need refuting as far as I was personally concerned."

When asked was he happy with the contents of the interim report, Casey pointedly declined to say he was. "It's an interim report and I don't want to be specific about it."

Nor would he say whether the officer board, in its entirety would be vindicated by the report despite being encouraged to do so. "If I said yes and I was proved to be wrong I'd look stupid. If I said no and I was proved to be wrong I'd look stupid."

When asked whether he still felt that the president should resign, Casey stood up with a heavy sigh and responded: "I'm not answering that question."

Such a secretive veil was draped over its contents that even before the meeting began a statement was issued on behalf of the FAI to the effect that they would say nothing, at least not about the audited investigation per se.

"Based on legal advice the association will not be in a position to comment on or answer questions on the Bastow Charleton report until the matters therein are given further careful considerations."

Yet the contents of the report dominated the meeting itself even though the minutes of the preceding executive meetings and other committees were taken as read, thereby preventing what would have been an hour-long appetiser for the main event ahead.

Thereafter extensive legal advice was given to the council members present to the effect that they would be best advised not to take the report home with them. Some made it abundantly clear that they would adhere to this advice. Others would not, though they were obliged to return them by Monday.

Further underlining the divide in what was the five-man officer board, Quigley, maintained that it was in the best interests of the FAI, that he (Kilcoyne) should resign his position immediately, otherwise this whole matter would continue to damage us.

He extended his criticisms to include Kilcoyne. "The president at all times must project a good image, must inspire confidence, must show leadership, and must always have, the good of the FAI and soccer in general as his primary concern."