How John Delaney survived his turbulent week

If anyone is really concerned that those in the upper echelons of the FAI are fretting over the widespread public criticism of the decision to give John Delaney the newly created post of executive vice chairman, fear not . . . there are signs that life is continuing as normal for the board and their recently removed chief executive.

At 6pm on Saturday, Delaney is due to be in Clounreask, Askeaton, Co Limerick where the headquarters of the local Desmond League is to be named Mick Hanley Park. Hanley, for the uninitiated, is a 76-year-old veteran of the league’s administration, 37 years its chairman, and since March 2017, a member of the FAI’s board of directors.

Former internationals Paul McGrath, something of a regular at FAI functions, and Andy Reid, recently named manager of the Irish Under-18 team, are both billed to be special guests at the ceremony which will be followed by “an all-ticket event in Rathkeale House Hotel”.

On the face of it, they might be seen as providing a bit of star quality but Delaney most likely sees himself as fulfilling that function himself. When The Irish Times once, a very long time ago, suggested that administrators in the grassroots game might be about to turn their backs on him, he happily told the story of an event he had recently attended with Packie Bonner and Brian Kerr where, he said, he had attracted more requests for autographs than either of the others.

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He certainly knows how to work a room, as anybody who has seen him in action at a club function can testify. And he clearly retains significant support at various levels of the game. It would be remarkable really, though, if he did not, given the effort he has put into cultivating personal loyalty during the 15 years he has been heading up the association.

Quite a few officials will privately admit to keeping their heads down for fear any criticism they voice at meetings or in public might have repercussions for the clubs or leagues they are trying to represent.

The public demonstrations of loyalty by affiliates over the past couple of days also give a sense of just how people view the association as doing its business.

The most widely reported was a letter of support signed by five people, four of them the administrators of the provincial associations in Leinster, Munster, Connacht and Ulster; people in full-time, paid positions created a few years back largely thanks to funding by the FAI.

One of the signatories, Gerry Tully, then a representative of the Roscommon league, came to some prominence in the summer of 2016, when he stood up at the FAI’s AGM in Clonmel and paid handsome tribute to Delaney. The following summer he was the association’s head of delegation at the Under-17 European Championship finals in Croatia.

The fifth signature on Thursday’s letter belongs to Dennis Cruise of the FAI Junior Council, a well known figure within the game. He has been one of the FAI’s nominees to the panel of Uefa match delegates for quite a few years. The role requires some work, often over three days, with delegates overseeing preparations for the game, attending it and then writing up various reports. It is both prestigious and rather well paid.

What with the Champions and Europa Leagues, international matches, women’s football and all the rest (even the Airtricity League get FAI observers and a fee, albeit it a fraction of the Uefa one, plus expenses are paid) there are a lot of games to go around these days.

Only this week Peadar Ryan, the FAI National Council member representing Galway United, was the delegate in Amsterdam where the Netherlands played Germany. Some games clearly rank more highly than others and not every trip is to a major European capital to see two famous teams square up but when they are good, they are very good. In 2017, Cruise got the job at the Champions League final in Cardiff.

There are countless other gigs up for grabs too, some of which command payment or prestige, others simply foreign travel; all in the gift of the FAI. Some may well go to some of Delaney’s less vociferous supporters, even relative neutrals, but nobody within the game seems able to come up with the names of too many outspoken critics who have got them.

One of those is Brian Kerr, the man who was manager of the international senior team when Delaney got the top job in what was then Merrion Square. When the Dubliner’s contract was not renewed, Andy Roxburgh apparently pencilled Kerr in for a place on a Uefa technical analysis group he was assembling for an upcoming major international championship.

In the end, though, the Scot had to inform Kerr, a long-time critic of Delaney, that the move had been vetoed by the FAI.

Things can get rather more petty than that, though. Another critic, Des Casey, is a former secretary of the association who stood in more than once as general secretary. He was also, in his day, a Uefa vice-president and was heavily involved with Dundalk FC. As he approaches the age of 87, he holds honorary life positions with all three bodies but has not even received the VIP tickets that are supposed to go with the FAI title in a couple of years. For a while, he got a couple of regular tickets, which were located towards the back of the upper tier of one of the stands and he tried to have them changed on the basis that he would struggle to climb too many stairs. These days, he does not get any at all.

The governance stuff is more mundanely structural, meanwhile, but it also played its part in Delaney maintaining his position down the years. Most of the current board, for instance, are members of the association’s key decision-making body because they have been elected as chair of committees assembled from the members of the 58-strong membership of Council.

There is a new one of those every year so new committees are nominated and their chairs elected. Except the people involved struggle to remember when there was last an election for any of the positions of chair despite the fact that each brings with it a place on the board.

Each committee has 12 places. One Council member points out that three of these are decided upon by a three-man panel – the chief executive, the president and a third person, who can change from committee to committee – after the rest of its members are in place, thus giving key figures the opportunity to ensure there is a built-in majority for the status quo or, if the need ever actually arose, change.

That the local administrators deserve recognition for all the endless work that goes on behind the scenes so that people can go out and play the game seems somehow self evident until you actually start naming grounds after them.

There’s at least one named for John Delaney, in Clones. Would it be something if they had as sudden rethink after seeing McGrath arrive in Askeaton this evening and named the place for him instead.

FAI Board: Who’s who

Jim McConnell
Position: Chair domestic committee.
Age: 74.
Joined board: 19/1/2004
Formerly in the soft drinks business, McConnell is the longest serving board member. Represented Ulster FA at council level and was a member of the original Genesis report steering committee.

Eddie Murray
Position: Treasurer/chair of finance committee.
Age: 79.
Joined: 19/1/2004
Retired Garda superintendent who initially represented Monaghan United when the club was in the League of Ireland. Initially got treasurer's job as part of part of division of key jobs between different sections of game.

Michael Cody
Position: Secretary.
Age: 79.
Joined: 19/1/2004
Retired Insurance executive with FBD. Originally from Cork, he represented League of Ireland outfit Cobh Ramblers on various bodies as he lived in Dublin – a not uncommon arrangement. A key Delaney supporter.

Paraic Treanor
Position: Chair of legal and corporate affairs committee.
Age: 67.
Joined: 1/12/2004
Runs a building society branch in Kildare as well as offering pensions and other financial advice. Lives in Lucan. Originally involved with the Leinster Football Association.

Daniel (Donal) Conway
Position: President.
Age: 64.
Joined: 26/9/2005
A former school principal whose background is in schools and colleges football. Lives in Swords. Seen as among the more independent minded of board members despite the tone of his comments in last Saturday's statement on changed role.

Eamon Naughton
Position: Chair of National League executive.
Age: 55.
Joined: 26/9/2007
Represented Galway United before becoming chairman of the league, his failure to be a more vocal advocate for the League of Ireland has attracted plenty of criticism from senior club officials.

John Earley
Position: Chair of underage committee.
Age: 63.
Joined: 18/5/2015
Elected to the board after the death of Tim Fitzgerald. Came from the SFAI (schoolboys). From Clonmel. Was a founder of Clerihan FC in 2001. The club is said to have forged strong links with John Delaney.

Michael Hanley
Position: Chair of international committee.
Age: 76.
Joined: 7/3/2017
Emerged from the Desmond League in Limerick where he had been chairman for some 37 years until retiring from the position in 2012. He stayed on as vice chair. Worked at port of Foynes.

Niamh O'Donoghue
Position: Chair of women's football committee.
Age: 57.
Joined: 22/7/2017
A former secretary general of the Department of Social Protection, she was heavily involved in the development of the women's game in Dublin. Her place on the board was a product of the "merger" between FAI and WFAI in 2017.

Noel Fitzroy
Position: Vice president/chair of development committee.
Age: 67.
Joined: 18/8/2018
A former chairman of the influential FAI junior council, Fitzroy was a long-time fixtures secretary at the United Churches League. Lives in Goatstown, Dublin.

UNTIL LAST WEEKEND
John Delaney
Position: Chief executive.
Age: 51.
Joined: 14/7/2001
Sat as a voting member of finance and legal and corporate affairs committees.

The Controversies - A Timeline

March 2005
Having seen off a couple of rivals and already generated a controversy or two as treasurer of the association, Delaney is appointed FAI CEO on a permanent basis, having taken full advantage of an interim spell in the role.

On board at the time: McConnell, Murray, Cody* and Treanor. *Cody was on the panel that interview candidates for the job

September 2008
Launches the Vantage Club, premium seat, ticket scheme. He says it will pay the association's share of the cost of redeveloping Lansdowne Road and then keep the organisation in clover. It is massively overpriced and fails . . . terribly.

On board at the time: McConnell, Murray, Cody, Treanor, Conway and Naughton

November 2009
A poor refereeing decision contributes to Ireland's exit from the World Cup playoffs so Delaney suggests to Sepp Blatter that Ireland be the 33rd country in South Africa. Blatter laughs, then effectively gives the FAI €5 million to go away.

On board at the time: McConnell, Murray, Cody, Treanor, Conway and Naughton

November 2014
Delaney entertains a crowd that includes former international players with a song about an IRA hunger striker during a late night session after an Ireland game. After a video emerges, the FAI says it is not him and threatens to sue anyone who says it is.

On board at the time: McConnell, Murray, Cody, Treanor, Conway and Naughton

June 2015
Some 18,000 programmes are pulped because, a week after the whole €5 million Fifa yarn emerges, Delaney's notes contain an attack on Blatter's corrupt ways at Fifa. The association's comms dept says he didn't even know about it.

On board at the time: McConnell, Murray, Cody, Treanor, Conway and Naughton

July 2018
Having apparently had to borrow €100,000, it says, from Delaney, the previous April then pay it back in June, the association publishes accounts that contain no reference to the transaction.

On board at the time: McConnell, Murray, Cody, Treanor, Conway, Naughton, Earley, Hanley, O'Donoghue

March 2019
Under renewed pressure because of the €100,000 and with some of the detail of his expenses about to emerge, there is talk Delaney is about to depart. Instead he gets a nice new gig that actually seems to quite suit him.

On board at the time: McConnell, Murray, Cody, Treanor, Conway, Naughton, Earley, Hanley, O'Donoghue and Fitzroy