SPORTS FUNDING: KEITH DUGGANis there as three of the most powerful administrators in Irish sport get together in a unique meeting on the eve of the Budget to argue against cutting sports funding in Ireland

‘OUR CONCERN is sport will be seen as an easy touch,” says Philip Browne, projecting the bleakest forecast ahead of next Wednesday afternoon’s dreaded Budget. The IRFU chief executive is sitting in an upstairs suite in the Berkeley Court, sharing a plate of sandwiches with Pauric Duffy, director general of the GAA and John Delaney, chief executive of the FAI.

These are probably the three most powerful men in Irish sport and they fail to produce a single complimentary ticket between them. The days of free lunches – the age of perks – is truly over.

It seems apt that the three meet in the Berkeley Court building, scene of a land deal that has become symbolic of the grandest vanity and ambition of the stratospheric Irish property boom. In a parallel universe, this area of Ballsbridge would be all diamonds and mirrors now, gleaming of new money.

Of course, in a parallel universe, the figurehead of Gaelic games would not be found passing the mayonnaise to the chief of the FAI. For decades, these two organisations were about as friendly as the USA and Russia.

John Delaney and Browne arrived here after a visit to the Aviva Stadium (one of the few building projects in Ireland that will actually see completion).

Duffy travelled over from Croke Park, the glittering north side venue that has housed rugby and soccer for the past two years, creating sporting scenes – Ronan O’Gara’s cross-field kick for Shane Horgan’s try against humbled England, Glenn Whelan’s goal against Italy – that would have been impossible to imagine a decade ago.

There is no doubt the Croke Park stadium share has facilitated a new wave of glasnost between the three biggest sports organisations in Ireland. The antipathy and mutual suspicion that governed the relationship between the GAA and the FAI, in particular, has largely disappeared – at administrative level if not on the playing fields across the country.

As Duffy says: “The mutual contact has been great. We still want kids to play our sport but there is a better understanding now that kids are going to want to play different sports and that is fine. We are still competing for hearts and minds; let’s not fool ourselves. But there is a better atmosphere now.”

The reason for their get -together on this bright and cutting November day is to argue the case for sport on the eve of a Budget that has pretty much everyone quaking. The GAA, the FAI and the IRFU each receive three million-plus each year from the State.

All three men bristle at the suggestion that given their enviable gate receipts and advertising revenue, this is small beer for their organisations.

They each estimate they invest three times that in coaching and games development and are adamant further cuts will lead to a reduction in the numbers of coaches operating around the country.

But they are not here just to argue on behalf of their own ball games. The Federation of Irish Sports recently submitted a document on behalf of the 60-plus affiliated sporting organisations.

“We are arguing on behalf of all Irish sport here,” Duffy stresses. “It is investment in the idea of sport in Ireland that we are fighting for. Because all that has been achieved for the last 10 years will be lost for what is, comparatively speaking, a small amount of money.”

Browne adds: “The reason we are here is because 10 years ago, government made a decision to bring sport to the cabinet table. And if that changes, we are really in a bad place. Because at least with sport at the cabinet table, we can put forward the arguments as to why sports benefits young people and about social cohesion and community-building. But if it is not at the table, we are really stuffed.

“The attitude is that we will survive. But there is a whole series of downstream benefits that do not seem to have registered and there is a very unsophisticated view of what sport can deliver to the State.”

Delaney says that in addition to the €3 million the FAI receives from the State, it invests about €15 million in games development. He explains that one of the many projects that it covers is for late-night soccer games in Ballymun, designed to attract bored adolescents from mooching about the streets looking for the usual trouble or excitement.

It is much like the midnight basketball programmes that have been run in the failed interiors of American cities for years.

When Delaney speaks about the FAI adaptation, it is clear he believes in it.

“It does work, it has helped to reduce typical crime rates in the area during that time and it has made a contribution that goes beyond soccer, that helps strengthen the social fabric of that society. And my fear is that the disadvantaged will once again be the most heavily affected if there are big budget cuts in sport. Because all bodies will try and keep their elite programmes going. That’s the reality.

“So if the Government is serious about protecting the marginalised, it should be aware that the withdrawal of sports council funding, in particular, could have devastating affects on communities among whom sports programmes have made a really big difference.”

Delaney, from Waterford, is steeped in FAI culture: his father Joe was a long-serving treasurer. Delaney has been chief executive of the FAI since 2005. Browne was raised in Rathgar and rowing was the sport that he favoured in his youth – he represented Ireland in two world championships. He joined the IRFU in 1992 and became the union’s first CEO six years later. Duffy, from Monaghan, was head master at St McCartan’s secondary school and contributed to the GAA in both coaching and administrative roles prior to succeeding Liam Mulvihill as director general.

All three agreed had they been told 20 years ago that they would occupy these positions today, they could not have imagined it.

“No. I was working in education for years and years and was happy enough volunteering my time to the GAA,” Duffy says. “I’d never have dreamt of it.”

When Browne took his post, he remembers he always felt the IRFU/GAA relationship was sufficiently cordial that he could call Liam Mulvihill if the necessity arose.

“I came from a rowing background so I was totally ecumenical. I didn’t do it very often,” he smiles, “but I could have.”

As he sees it, all three organisations have matured rapidly in the last two decades and operate on a much more sophisticated and higher level now.

“It was only a matter of time before we came together. Our agendas coincide in terms of State and sport.”

The titles – chief executive, director general – are so broad and all-encompassing that is difficult to get a firm handle on what they actually do. One wonders if there aren’t the occasional dull Friday afternoons, the phone silent for hours and all three men padding around their carpeted offices tinkering around with a putter, a golf ball and an empty coffee cup, dreaming of being Pádraig Harrington.

It seems unlikely, but if the three share anything in common, it is an uncomplicated enthusiasm for sport.

How would they explain their jobs to a class of 10-year-olds?

“One thing for sure is that when you come in on a Monday morning, you haven’t a clue what is going to happen,” Browne says. “It throws up things that you never expect. All our jobs are similar in that we are effectively running businesses. Now, we are non-profit organisations but you have to run them like a business.”

“Well, John and Philip have a huge international dimension to their work whereas I have 32 independent republics,” Duffy says. “That is the big difference.”

“At least 32, Pauric,” Delaney adds.

“Sometimes I envy the two lads here over the control they appear to have of their organisations,” Duffy continues. “We are very democratic in the GAA. I think as well that we accept now that we cannot compete with rugby and soccer in terms of the international dimension.

“If Ireland had made it to the World Cup in South Africa, it would have overshadowed the early part of our All-Ireland championship next summer, for sure. But we have lived with that before. The last 20 years don’t appear to have had a major affect on the popularity of our games.

“In terms of our own international dimension, I think that our games will always be indigenous but there is room for growth. Last year, we had teams competing in France made up entirely of French players.”

Delaney eyes light at this news. “Is that where Henry learnt his trick?”

Of the three men, it seems fair to assert that the FAI – and therefore Delaney – get the roughest ride in terms of media treatment.

Hours after this meeting, the Evening Herald led with the front-page news about Ireland’s new “hope” of gaining a place at the 2010 World Cup.

Then came Sepp Blatter’s infamous Bond-villain turn at Ireland’s expense and renewed criticism of Delaney and the FAI for seeking to become the 33rd team in South Africa. Delaney is sufficiently tough-skinned to take it on the chin and, for all the bruises, he seems to revel in the job.

“It is a privilege. You never know from week to week and it is exciting. To have worked with Bobby Robson, to work with Giovanni Trapattoni: those are privileges. To meet Pele last Thursday? Things like that are special. Did I ever think as a kid I would spend a morning with Pele in a helicopter? I said to him beforehand: ‘Be careful, I’m not having a lot of luck at the moment.’ But anything I have done in this job I would trade for one international cap. I say that to kids all the time when we are presenting caps.”

Fifa’s unashamedly shabby treatment of the FAI and indeed Irish sensitivities underline the truth that in terms of international pull, this country is a minnow. And yet the FAI, who preside over a modest and often ailing domestic league, have seen their international team lose out in three major championship play-offs. They came within a hair’s breadth of beating France in Paris.

The Ireland rugby team, Grand Slam champions, have just beaten world champions South Africa on a gruelling, foggy November classic in Croke Park. The last decade has seen burgeoning attendances for the GAA and championships defined by the enduring dynasties of Kilkenny and Kerry.

There have been stunning – if isolated – achievements in golf, boxing and athletics.

It could be argued that for a country with a population equivalent to that of the average English city, Ireland’s sporting legacy is little short of miraculous.

“I joined the IRFU in 1992,” Browne recalls. “In a typical year we won one match and in a good year, we won two. And for the first eight years of my involvement, that was the case. We are a sports-mad nation. We are responsible for that as much as anyone because we are trying to get people involved.

“The frustrating thing is, particularly at international level, that expectations go ballistic. It is either hot or cold. But it is true that across all sports, Irish athletes do box above their weight.”

Later, the discussion turns to private sporting disappointments. Delaney instantly confesses that his belongs to an under-14 match played in Tipperary some time in the 1970s. He scored an own goal against Clonmel Town.

“It didn’t matter because we beat them 7-0 in a kind of play-off a week later. But for that week, to put the ball in your own net – it was a back pass – in front of your pals was very hard to live with. I was shell-shocked. Genuinely.”

(Curiously, when he met Blatter in Zurich last week, he reminded him that the only significant rule change Fifa have made in the last 30 years was to rule out the back pass to the goalkeeper).

Pauric Duffy returned to the 1985 All-Ireland football semi-final between Kerry and Monaghan, for whom he was a selector under Seán McCague.

Philip Browne shakes his head in disbelief when we recall that just 21,000 people attended that match. Another strange fact about that semi-final is the replay (which 53,000 paid into) was not televised: this was the era when the GAA hierarchy had yet to be convinced as to the merits of TV.

The GAA has moved light years from that mindset.

The other two organisations have changed beyond recognition also. Browne, after all, was starting out in the IRFU when Simon Geoghegan, the cult hero of Irish rugby in the early 1990s, made despairing complaints about the lack of sufficient training programmes for the team.

Nowadays, the IRFU have developed ties with Australian Rules clubs and the Pittsburgh Steelers, one of the great traditional NFL clubs, in order to keep informed of how other sports are developing.

The FAI, as Delaney reasonably points out, face the tricky task of developing the home game while trying to compete with elite international sides like France and Italy at international competition.

“I sometimes think the lads have it a bit easier,” he says.

On Saturday mornings, Delaney brings his son along to hurling training at Ballygunner GAA club. He maintains he does not care which sport his child plays as long as he likes it.

All three men understand that while it is easy now to sit down and share coffee in a conference room, the real meat and drink of their sports is sourced in the fields across Ireland. Duffy admits to having real fears about the way sport is slowly but surely being squeezed out of schools, concerns his colleagues share.

“The old way of a parent or a teacher bringing kids to games in packed cars is finished,” Delaney says. “A lot of teachers can’t bring teams to games now because they can’t get cover for their classes. The choice is to either bring the entire class or not compete.”

Browne has watched the decimation of schools rugby in Wales and Scotland through want of funding and various industrial disputes.

“There are lessons to be learnt here. If I could change anything about sport in this country, it would be that sport would be regarded here as it is in Australia and Canada, places where sport has an intrinsic value to the country.

“We all pay lip-service here to the idea that it matters but the reality is that that has not been matched by deed. It is only in the past 10 years that the State has actually got involved in sport. For the previous years, it was up to volunteers and amateurs to make that investment.”

For some reason, Browne’s words bring to mind the indelible image of one CJH celebrating on the podium with Stephen Roche at the 1987 Tour de France, perhaps the most outrageous of all Irish sporting triumphs. All three of these men can recall the years when there was precious little to shout about for Irish sport and when their own sports, in particular, were simply threading water, year in and year out.

All that has changed. Their main message now is the thunderous days and nights of the last decade did not happen by accident. As Delaney puts it, the FAI and the IRFU and the GAA “aren’t going away any time soon”.

But the flash times have. That illusion is done with. The past few months have shown, once again, that sport is one of the few arenas that allows Ireland to hold its head high. The big three of Irish sport will be listening closely to Brian Lenihan’s speech on Wednesday.

“It would be folly to waste 10 years of good work,” Browne says. “We don’t care what sport it is. What we want is for kids in this country to continue having access to sport and playing sport.”

On Leaving Croke Park

Pauric Duffy: "In fairness, we respect the views of the FAI and the IRFU. What we meant was that if at some time in the future – for example, if rugby decide to bid for a world cup – that we would be open to the idea. We absolutely accept that Aviva is there for soccer and rugby.

Philip Browne: "Croke Park has worked really well. And I am not speaking for John but I am sure he would say the same thing. The co-operation has been great. We got a great welcome. But if you go to where we were with the Aviva stadium, we built it according to the facts and the conditions at the time. We had to build a financial engine for both our sports. Which is what we did. We spent a lot of money. We got helped by the State. And it is going to drive the investment in soccer and rugby at grassroots level. We have made commitments to various commercial enterprises, be it Aviva or the catering franchise Compass who have really come in behind us. And we can't let them down – morally or contractually. Because if we do so, our financial engine falls apart. So we are where we are. And I do hear exactly what Pauric is saying. Maybe at some point down the line, there may be opportunities and if we are bidding for a world cup or something, we would be foolish not to sit down and talk with the guys in Croke Park."

John Delaney. "People have to understand that [playing games in Croke Park in the coming years] is not going to happen. When we went to Croke Park, we gave a commitment that we were building a stadium and that this was a temporary arrangement. That was made clear to us. We had to make a serious of commitments prior to going into Croke Park and we understood how big a decision it was for the GAA. So if there is going to be a hue and cry, well, people have to understand that it can't happen under the current terms. Now, I also understand what Pauric is saying about big games of a different nature. And that would be great. Now who knows, in 10 or 15 years' time – well, I don't think I will be here – but for whoever is there, those opportunities may be available."

Pauric Duffy: "There was a huge outcry at the time but 70 per cent of people voted to open it. It has changed the GAA in some ways in the sense that it is hard to believe the furore there was at the time. Once the games started, it wasn't an issue any more.

“But people in the GAA accept that rugby and soccer games will be played in Aviva. We absolutely accept that. We almost can’t give the right answer here because if we say we are happy to have more games, people think we are looking for matches. We are not. It is their decision. And if they want to come back at some time in the future, then the GAA will be happy to respond.”

John Delaney: "The answer is that we are not able to. We made our decision based on the conditions imposed on us when we went in. It is an inability to play in Croke Park as much as anything.

Philip Browne: "The reality is that we had to build what we built because we had to take a 40-year view. What we can't do is undermine that financial engine. And yes, there may be some disappointed people. I appreciate that. But ultimately, the fundamental issue for us is that we use the Aviva stadium to drive our revenues and our games at grassroots level.

“Some people are not going to have the same level of access to some of the big matches that they have had for the last two and a half years. But ultimately, our focus has to be on what is good for our sports.”