FAI FINANCES: JOHN DELANEY has again insisted the FAI is capable of dealing with the levels of debt it has incurred as a result of the redevelopment of Lansdowne Road but the association's chief executive refused to directly address detailed reports recently that sales of its Vantage Club seats, originally intended to fund its share of the costs, have fallen dramatically short of what had been hoped.

Speaking at the official launch of an initiative involving Shares Access, the Irish subsidiary of the American firm of the same name, which involves the company providing free floodlights to football clubs around the country in return for being allowed to use the structures as masts for mobile communications, Delaney insisted that the association is “doing its stuff” on the financial front and that it will be, as previously promised, debt free by 2020.

Delaney, who had been joined for the photocall associated with the launch at the Aviva Stadium by the Minister for Communication, Energy and Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan, claimed that the stadium would be close to full for the forthcoming European Championship qualifier against Russia with the attendance set to be boosted by a number of promotions including the selling of significant numbers of tickets at a very large discount through a tabloid newspaper.

“Promotion is what it’s about,” he said when it was put to him that such deals were a very long way from the confident predictions during construction that there would be no tickets on general sale for games because of the advance block bookings and premium seat sales. “Everybody knows at this stage we’re in a different climate. It’s a different economy.

“You guys, I can tell you, I know all the prices that newspapers are giving out and they’re not the standard rates, they’re different rates. Bulk buying and all the rest of it, every business that operates in the real world is into that at the moment.”

He went on to suggest as he has previously that the association has sold around 6,000 of the 10,000 premium seats by maintaining that it had only roughly 3,700 left to sell. He then refused to provide any specifics in relation to the number of actual sales or revenues generated despite it being put to him that around a third of the claimed sales were no more than options made available to sponsors while close to a thousand of the remaining figure were accounted for by subscribers to a previous, far less expensive 10-year scheme.

The remaining 3,000 or so, it is believed, then includes a number of orders since cancelled and a far larger number of tickets sold at substantial discounts or provided to companies as part of commercial arrangements.

“I’m not going to go into that with you,” he said. “I’ve been through this a hundred times and I’m not going to go into that anymore.

“No business would be forensically examined to the extent of saying that these are the ones that we’ve sold, this is the cash we’ve collected. I keep saying to you that our banks are happy, our grassroots members are happy and I have to say that that’s all that really matters to the association.

“I’m not going to go into it but it is common sense to say that if somebody comes and says I want to buy 100 seats off you – no more than I often see the free copies of newspapers in the airports or wherever it might be – there are bulk discounts on the order; there are different ways of dealing with things, that’s just common sense.”

Pressed on whether discounts had been provided to far more run-of-the-mill buyers as the eagerness to complete sales took hold, Delaney declined to be drawn.

“I’m not going to get into that with you today. You’ve written the pieces that you have and the best of luck to you in that regard.”

Delaney said that the association had made profits of €5 million last year, is on course to break even this year and has a business plan, supported by its bankers, that it is confident will result in it being debt free by its target date of 2020.

Nevertheless, those within the “football family” who are concerned about the association’s debts, which are estimated to exceed €50 million, might point to the similar levels of confidence he displayed a couple of years back when talking up the prospects of big returns on the premium seat sale.

There was some good news yesterday, however, or at least the news that there will be good news in the not-too-distant future with Delaney revealing that the association is soon to confirm the details of a new sponsorship deal that will earn it, “at least €10 million in cash over 10 years plus other options as well”. Proof, he said, “that we are doing our stuff”.

Before that deal is confirmed, however, most likely in the wake of the Russia and Slovakia games in a couple of weeks, the association will reveal further detail on the Carling-backed four nations tournament to be staged in Dublin next year.