Windfall may still have its fall guy

After the bitter divisions of the past two years, Eircom Park was formally consigned to history yesterday with barely a sentimental sigh from the FAI delegates who gathered at Dublin's Green Isle Hotel to decide between it and becoming tenants at the proposed Stadium Ireland.

The association's chief executive, Bernard O'Byrne, described the deal agreed with the Government in return for abandoning the project as "stunning", and few can disagree. Certainly not the members of the FAI's 55-strong National Council, who unanimously voted in favour of its adoption.

O'Byrne estimated that the association will have between £80 million and £125 million to spend on football over the next 13 years. FAI treasurer Brendan Menton put the figure "at least £125 million".

Subsequently it was agreed that the potential funds available to the organisation between now and 2014 could run to £165 million.

Of that, the association would, under normal circumstances, have expected the sport to have received around £78 million in Government grants, as the average subsidy at present is around £6 million per annum. Even that, however, values the move to Abbotstown at £87 million.

All sides agree that the five page document - and its three pages of explanatory notes - is complicated. The main elements of the package, though, are: (1) an additional £9 million per annum in grants and loans for the next three years;

(2) the right to keep the estimated £40 million they earn from advance box and ticket sales at Stadium Ireland (out of which they will be expected to repay £16 million);

(3) savings of around £3 million per year once they switch their internationals to Stadium Ireland from Lansdowne Road.

In addition, there will be around £30 million in matching funding provided by the Government for various development projects, although some of this will be offset against the association's regular annual grants.

In the circumstances, it was no great surprise that the deal was accepted without the need for anything approaching serious debate. First, the officer board agreed unanimously to recommend it, then the board of management followed suit.

Finally, at the end of one of the shortest National Council meetings of recent times, they did no more than go through the motions of a vote.

Addressing the media afterwards, O'Byrne admitted to feeling some private disappointment that Eircom Park was now officially dead.

"But that has been more than balanced over the past couple of weeks when we saw the quality of support on offer from the Government," he said. "The figures promised in this deal are unheard of in terms of Irish football."

Asked for his reaction to the agreement, Menton, who had long championed the idea of doing business with the Government, said: "It provides something that soccer never had, we've never had the resources to support our game, and now we will, at every level."

O'Byrne, pressed about his position and whether he would come under pressure as a result of the collapse of Eircom Park - a scheme on which the FAI has spent more than £3.5 million - said he didn't believe so.

"The reason I don't think so," he remarked, "is that there was a clear mandate to bring the stadium idea forward. I did come up with the idea, but after that I was doing my best to progress something that was the policy of the association."

"The fact is," said FAI president Pat Quigley, "if we hadn't shown vision two or three years ago, we wouldn't have this offer now."

While O'Byrne said that he enjoyed his job, did it to the best of his abilities and intended to stay in it, he added that if he were to depart, it would only be as a result of a move initiated by his employers.

However, there were signs at yesterday's meeting of the pressure he will now come under. The board of management broadened the brief of the subcommittee established on Wednesday to look into O'Byrne's use of an official credit card so that "other issues" could be looked into as well.

Next Friday the board will meet again to consider some of the negative implications of yesterday's deal. In particular, they will have to decide how to handle outstanding commitments to companies such as IMG.

Last night, however, few wanted to think about next Friday. With the increased funding coming on stream late this summer, they were far too preoccupied looking further down the road than that.