FAI risks missing out on millions in funding as general assembly votes against adding female directors

The General Assembly of the Football Association of Ireland has rejected a move by its executive to add two independent female directors to an expanded 14-person board.

At an online emergency general meeting (EGM) on Thursday night, the proposal failed to get the necessary 75 per cent of the vote, which puts at risk €4.35 million in government funding, that can be withheld if the FAI fail to reach 40 per cent female representation on their board before next month’s annual general meeting (AGM).

A second EGM is scheduled for December 2nd, seven days before the already delayed AGM.

The current 11-person FAI board had hoped to push through the constitutional change that would see seven independent directors sitting alongside seven from the “football family.”

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However, 76 voted for the constitutional change while 38 voted not to give equal control of the FAI board to independent directors.

The current independent members on the board are Catherine Guy, Liz Joyce, Maeve McMahon and Robert Watt, who is the secretary general at the Department of Health.

Six male candidates - Paul Cooke or Joe O’Brien for president, John Finnegan for vice president, Dave Moran Nixon Morton and Tom Browne - have been nominated.

Outgoing FAI chairman Roy Barrett confirmed at the EGM that he was stepping away from Irish football.

“We want to encourage more females to come into our game and that has to start somewhere, and it starts at the top,” said Barrett in June 2022. “We just need more time to get it right.”

Time is running out with the potential loss of funding for 2025 to have immediate impact on the domestic game.