FAI on collision course with Minister

FAI meetingThe Football Association of Ireland's 60-strong council will meet at Citywest Hotel this afternoon to consider how to deal with the organisation's need to fill their vacant chief executive position and the Government's insistence they do so by open competition at the earliest possible opportunity.

Supporters of the FAI treasurer, John Delaney, are keen he be offered the post on an interim basis for at least 12 months, but this would amount to open defiance of the Minister for Sport, John O'Donoghue, who has suggested the organisation will fall out of favour with his Department if they do not advertise the post before Christmas.

It seems the matter will not be finally resolved today. If Delaney is offered the job, it is expected he will require a few days before he accepts to sort out his current employment situation, and it is likely the association will also embark on a quick succession of damage-limitation meetings with the Sports Council and the Government.

A meeting is already scheduled with Irish Sports Council chief executive John Treacy and leading members of the council for next Tuesday, and it is anticipated the association's officers will seek a mandate from today's meeting to arrange a meeting with O'Donoghue at which they would outline their reasons for departing from his prescribed route forward.

At next week's meeting with the Sports Council, the FAI are also expected to present their version of how they might address the present impasse so that the element of Government funding currently frozen can be restored.

That would be appear to be a tall order if a decision is taken today to hand the chief executive's job to Delaney, who is believed to be against resigning his current job with a Waterford-based logistics company unless he is guaranteed at least 12 to 18 months in Merrion Square.

There was talk yesterday of anger among delegates over the Government's stand on the issue, and a belief that the Minister has gone too far by effectively seeking to dictate to the association both when and how they fill their top job.

There is, nevertheless, a fear among some prominent figures within the game that some movement needs to be made quickly on the posts of chief executive and financial director if a costly and damaging spat with the Minister is to be avoided.

To date most of the talk about the situation has taken place at officer and board level, and this afternoon's meeting of the far more representative council will provide a far better idea of how the sport's grassroots has viewed the developments of the past 10 days.