No media deal due to O’Brien funding, FAI says

Businessman Denis O'Brien's part-funding of the new Republic of Ireland management team involved no particular media deal, FAI chief executive John Delaney has said. Asked yesterday if there was a "quid-pro-quo media-wise", Mr Delaney replied: "Not from my point of view."

He was commenting after he had given his first interview confirming the managerial appointments on the Denis O'Brien-owned Newstalk Radio yesterday morning.

He was live in studio for the interview at about 11.30am on Newstalk's Pat Kenny Show. It is understood that RTÉ had pitched a number of times from very early yesterday for an interview with Mr Delaney.

Newstalk
Just before 11am Newstalk tweeted about the management news. "BREAKING: FAI confirms O'Neill / Keane appointment in Newstalk exclusive," it said at 10.59am.

A few minutes later, the FAI tweeted about the appointment from its Twitter account. “We can confirm that the management appointment process with Martin O’Neill & Roy Keane is at an advanced stage,” the tweet at 11.02 am said.

Mr Delaney later appeared on RTÉ Radio's News at One where he said that the "same access" was given by the association to different media organisations. "What we do is we do press conferences. When they come in the same access is given to players and to the management team over the last number of years for Newstalk or RTÉ or whoever it would be," he said.

He praised the financial support the FAI received from Mr O’Brien. “Without Denis O’Brien’s contribution and support this couldn’t have been done. Denis has been fantastic and outstanding in his support for Irish soccer over the past number of years. We could get people to accept roles but we couldn’t have financed it without Denis,” he said.

However, he would not be drawn on the cost of the management team which he said “should be kept private”. He said there were “all sorts of figures in the media”.

Salary
Media reports ahead of the announcement said O'Neill will be paid € 1.2 million with Keane on something closer to €500,000. Mr O'Brien had also part-funded the salary of former manager Giovanni Trapattoni which was in the region of €1.5million.

Asked about yesterday’s interview, a spokesman for Newstalk said the station “always tried to be first in every aspect of news delivery”.

Denis O'Brien, who founded Communicorp, owns 20 stations in five countries among which are Newstalk, 98FM, Spin 103 and Phantom 105.2. Mr O'Brien also holds a 29.9 per cent stake in Independent News & Media.

A spokeswoman for Communicorp, which uses the same public relations company as Newstalk, did not add anything to the station’s statement. An FAI spokesman had no further comment to make on the matter.

Football pundit Eamon Dunphy – who wrote Keane’s biography but fell out with him subsequently – warmly welcomed the appointment. “I think it’s great news – we have two great Irish people doing the job.”

Dunphy praised Mr Delaney whom he said had shown great magnanimity in agreeing to Keane’s appointment. “I applaud the FAI and Denis O’Brien for putting the shoulder to the wheel and getting these two great iconic figures in Irish soccer together.”