New appeal blow to FAI timetable

The future of Eircom Park may now have to be decided within the next two weeks after it emerged yesterday that An Bord Pleanala has confirmed it intends to hold an oral hearing into the appeal against the decision by South Dublin County Council to grant planning permission for the project.

The decision to hold an oral hearing had been widely expected, but the timing of the announcement is a blow to the association whose leading officials had been hoping that Davy Hickey Properties could complete a study of their business plan for the development before any appeal got under way.

The appeal is expected to be heard in about three weeks.

FAI officials put the cost to the association of the appeal at between £300,000 and £500,000. Funds have been offered by IMG to help cover the costs of both it and the completion of the stadium designs, but there is considerable resistance within the FAI's board of management to this offer because of the conditions attached.

With no obvious alternative outside source of funds, the association would have to provide the cash itself and the risk is that another sizeable portion of the FAI's increasingly limited resources would be spent on fighting for a planning permission which it is far from certain to be able to use.

After Monday's meeting in Dublin, when it was broadly agreed that Davy Hickey would take between two and three months to complete its "due diligence" on the Eircom Park business plan, the hope was expressed that an indication would be given by the firm in the interim. It now appears the association will be chasing their would-be partners for a preliminary opinion so a decision can be taken on funding the oral appeal.

"The timing is dreadful," said FAI treasurer Brendan Menton last night. "It means that we're being asked to invest another £300,000 up front without knowing if we are going to get anything back for it down the line.

"Obviously we will have to discuss the implications of this over the next day or two," he added, "but we will certainly have to hope that Davy Hickey take the interests of the association into account if they are not going to run with it."

The management committee of the National League are already scheduled to meet tomorrow evening to discuss the proposed deal with Davy Hickey, while the FAI's board of management will meet on Friday when it had been expected that the association's directors would ratify their agreement with the property developers.