THE FORMER owner and chairman of Limerick football club, Jack McCarthy, has filed a $1m lawsuit in the US against the FAI and a number of individuals connected with it, including chief executive John Delaney. The action is being taken under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), normally used to deal with gangster and Mafia related crime in the US.

The Irish American lawyer, who is based in Princeton and who has previously promoted high-profile friendly games in the United States, is claiming three times as much money as he says that he lost on his 22-month involvement with the League of Ireland outfit.

During that time, he says, he “came to love” the club but ultimately realised that, having paid off its debts, he could not afford to keep funding it as it had become apparent that he would not be able to operate it on anything approaching a break even basis.

This was despite having been assured by FAI officials prior to taking over that he would have all the access he required “to the expertise within the association in the areas of running a club in the eircom League of Ireland from club promotions and marketing to the financial and organisation structures required to ensure the club is successful”.

The RICO legislation under which the legal action has been filed was introduced in the USA at the start of the 1970s with the intention of combating organised crime. It has regularly been used in cases of alleged extortion, blackmail and money laundering and at the heart of criminal prosecutions taken against, amongst others, the Gambino family and insider trader Michael Milken.

It has, however, also been used before in disputes between owners of sports clubs and governing bodies most notably when, almost 10 years ago, the owners of Montreal Expos filed suit against Major League Baseball in a dispute which was eventually resolved by arbitration.

In this instance, McCarthy is seeking damages of $1,285,500 (around €960,000), which amounts to exactly three times the amount he claims to have lost as a result of his involvement with the club. His action is against the FAI, its then internal compliance officer Pádraig Smith, Delaney and current head of league marketing and promotion, Noel Mooney.

McCarthy insists that “the case has merit,” but in a statement issued to The Irish Times, the FAI rejected the allegations. “The Football Association of Ireland and its employees strenuously deny ALL (their emphasis) allegations made by Mr McCarthy as baseless, unsubstantiated and defamatory. The FAI intends to contest this action with the utmost vigour possible.”

It is the third time in recent years that owners of Limerick’s league team have taken legal action against the association with McCarthy’s predecessor, Danny Drew, having taken a High Court action in an attempt to prevent the club he owned, which had been refused a licence to participate in the First Division for the 2007 season, being replaced by the newly formed Limerick 37.

Current owner Pat Sullivan, also went to the courts to fight an FAI decision to refuse him permission to stage a friendly last summer against Barcelona in Thomond Park. The latter case was resolved through arbitration.

In court documents that have been filed in New Jersey and seen by The Irish Times, McCarthy outlines a number of ways in which the support he received from the association fell short of what he felt he had been led to believe he could expect and one of the instances cited is the difficulty he encountered when attempting to stage fund-raising friendly games at Thomond Park himself.

In an email dated June 12th, 2009, McCarthy expresses “deep disappointment and frustration,” in relation to the way he and club have been treated by the association and in a later letter he suggests that the two parties might seek mediation.

In a strongly worded email from Delaney to McCarthy dated June 16th, 2009, however, the association’s chief executive rejects all of the allegations and threatens legal action for libel against McCarthy.

Instead, the action has been initiated by McCarthy in the USA with papers sent on September 15th from America to be served on the FAI which has an initial 21 days from the day they arrive to respond. There is case law to suggest the New Jersey courts will be prepared to assert jurisdiction in a case like this and McCarthy is seeking to have the case heard in front of a jury in the state. The FAI could seek to have any case transferred to the Irish courts.