FAI given ultimatum on new stadium

The FAI's efforts to build Eircom Park were yesterday plunged into further turmoil when one of the association's most senior officers threatened to take legal action to obtain detailed information relating to the project.

At a heated meeting of the association's board of management in Dublin, FAI treasurer Brendan Menton said the organisation would receive a letter from his solicitors by Tuesday demanding that he be given access to all the relevant financial information. If it is not forthcoming at that stage he will take the matter to the High Court, he insisted before walking out of the meeting.

The threat is the latest instalment of a long-running saga in which Menton has been campaigning to gain access to all of the figures relating to IMG's sales of seats and corporate boxes at the proposed stadium.

The figures were to have been made available to him almost two months ago. His latest action is seen as an attempt to force an end to the impasse which FAI general secretary Bernard O'Byrne maintained last night was outside the control of the association.

O'Byrne said the required information would not be available within the required time but it would be obtained within the next 10 to 14 days after which it would be made available to another board meeting on November 27th.

The threat of legal action remains, though, with Menton clearly deeply frustrated by a process that he feels should have been sorted long before now. And the deep divisions within the association's board were underlined yesterday when five fellow directors forced the meeting's early adjournment by following Menton out.