The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) insist no official statement is planned as speculation mounts over the future of their former chief executive John Delaney.
Pressure has intensified on the association to act after Delaney, operating for the last three weeks in the newly-created post of executive vice-president, read a prepared statement and refused to answer questions on the controversial €100,000 loan issue at the Oireachtas committee for sport, transport and tourism on Wednesday.
The committee’s chairman Fergus O’Dowd concluded the hearing by calling on the entire 10-person board, as well as Delaney, to stand down in order to resurrect the reputation of Irish football.
Funding by Sport Ireland to the FAI has been suspended and yesterday Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the public deserved answers from Delaney on the outstanding issues.
President of the FAI, Donal Conway, was present at their headquarters in Abbotstown today but reports of a meeting involving all board members proved wide of the mark.
A spokesperson for the association confirmed they had no comment to make on the present saga and there was no press release expected today.
The FAI’s top brass are coming under increasing pressure to step aside.
It emerged at Wednesday’s hearing that Delaney only informed two of his nine fellow members of the loan until only recently.
That information was disclosed only after he unsuccessfully attempted to injunct the Sunday Times from publishing details of the transaction on March 17.
Since then, all of their main sponsors, including Three, SSE Airtricity and New Balance, said they want the FAI to implement any corporate governance recommendations which emerge from the internally-commissioned Mazars Report.
Another auditing firm, Grant Thornton, have been on site for the past two weeks scrutinising the FAI’s books and ledgers.
Furthermore, the biggest adult league in the country, the Leinster Senior League, are conducting a survey of their 138 clubs about their level of confidence in the FAI hierarchy.
So far, according to their Chairman Dave Moran, feedback has indicated an overwhelming desire for the current board and Delaney to resign.
