Delaney says cup will go ahead

WITH THE refinancing of Setanta appearing to progress significantly yesterday, the future of the all-Ireland club competition sponsored by the company looks to be secure with details of this year’s event due to be revealed on Thursday week.

FAI chief executive John Delaney said yesterday that the competition would have been unlikely to proceed had the broadcaster not been able to continue with its backing. The need to find both a new broadcaster and sponsor would almost certainly have meant that it would have been shelved, he suggested.

“I think it would be difficult,” he said, “but they’ve got some funding in place to solve the business issues they’ve had. So on the back of that it’s business as usual; that’s what they’ve told us anyway, continue with the competition and get the invites out for the draw. At the moment it would appear that it’s okay.”

Delaney, speaking at the launch of the association’s new Code of Ethics and Good Practice for Children’s Soccer, along with Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Barry Andrews, also said the organisation is working to persuade the Government to retain the tax refund scheme under which professional footballers and other sportspeople can reclaim the tax they have paid over 10 years of their career.

“We’re making representations through the Department of Sport on that,” he said. “It’s been vital not only to our own footballers but to Irish professional rugby as well. They’ve asked us to give an analysis of what benefit it has been to the players. So we’ll put a piece of paper together on that in conjunction with Stephen McGuinness and the guys at the PFAI. We’ll be certainly making a submission to ask that that tax status be maintained into the future.”

The association’s case may not be helped by the number of problems there have been over the years with league clubs failing to pay the tax they are supposed to, an issue that arose again recently with Cork City who will be returning to court soon in relation to a case brought by the Revenue Commissioners.

“Any club that gets itself into that position is not good,” said Delaney, “but Tom (Coughlan) has assured us that he’s dealing with it and that part of it is linked to pre-examinership tax bills, that’s what he made clear to us and that’s what he’s discussing with the tax authorities. He certainly has made some payments at this stage, for sure. He’s assured Pádraig Smith and we’ve seen evidence of that, so hopefully everything goes well. The sooner that thing is over and the club is getting on with more football issues the better.”

He went on to confirm that this year’s Ford-sponsored FAI Cup final will be at Tallaght Stadium.

“I’d say Tallaght alright, I’d like it to be in Tallaght. The second stand will be up in August and with temporary seats behind both goals, you could have a capacity of maybe 11,000 or 12,000. It would be the last cup final held as it would have to be in the Aviva Stadium after that.”

Asked how sales of 10-year tickets for the new stadium are going, Delaney replied: “They’re going grand.”