FAI Statement Fails to address the Real Issues

Statement from Tony Fitzgerald on behalf of FAI Board Tony Fitzgerald, President of the Football Association of Ireland spoke this evening on behalf of the FAI Board in relation to John Delaney, 26th Nov 2014

“Following recent coverage of the cyber bullying of his partner Emma and the fact that John has publicly apologised if he offended anyone for singing the nationalist song in question, we are happy to bring the matter to a close.

“The Board is more than pleased with the way John Delaney is running the Association. He has done an enormous amount for Irish football. In the past year alone the winning of EURO 2020 bid for Dublin adds to a number of very important developments he has helped oversee during his tenure. We recently awarded him a contract extension to 2020 and he is fully deserving of that.”

The above statement was posted to the FAI website at approximately 10.45 last night. I assume the time was chosen to ensure they avoided tomorrow’s newspapers but that is largely irrelevant. It isn’t just a case of the FAI brushing a mess under their carpet, more a case of them not knowing what the mess is.They have cleaned out the rabbit hutch while completely ignoring the elephant in the room.

The opening line is an immediate deflection of the issue at hand. Any cyber bullying which occurred is of no relevance to the Chief Executive Officer’s garnering of headlines, here and abroad, for his unprofessional behaviour. One could argue that his happiness at parading the relationship in gossip columns and magazines is what lead her to be such an easy target for internet trolls. There is of course no excuse for such actions and am aware of how upsetting this event must have been for Miss English, but should the partner of a member of staff really be name dropped in any official statement, in such an amical fashion?
Furthermore, the idea that the sole problem here is Mr. Delaney’s choice of song is diversionary in the extreme. I am aware that certain sections of the media, especially outside the Republic of Ireland, will find hypocrisy between Mr Delaney’s past seat on UEFA’s Body of Discipline and Control and his song choice, but it is evident to many here at home that the problems lay much deeper.
Well Mr Delaney may argue that he was singing amongst friends and is allowed to let off steam occasionally, I do not believe it is acceptable that a man in his position can be ever truly ‘off duty’. In fact, it was Mr. Delaney himself who pointed out that the job is ’24/7′. It also should be noted that this was not an ordinary night in a local bar in rural Waterford but post-match drinks, in a public house that is a mere stone’s throw away from the Aviva Stadium. Inside that ground, just a few hours before,a peaceful pre-match protest questioned the FAI leadership, specifically about the distribution of away tickets but there are other pertinent grievances, was met with unnecessarily strong policing from FAI security. Seeing as Mr Delaney has gone to great lengths to point out that he is happy to accept criticism on football related matters, perhaps he can apologise to those who were not allowed their freedom of expression and the right to criticise.
Mr. Fitzgerald also points out that the board are happy with how the CEO is running the association. I have no expertise in running any major organisation but had never heard of a CEO running any company or association single-handed. In fact a quick web search backs this up.

“A chief executive officer (ceo) is generally the most senior corporate officer(executive) or administrator in charge of managing a for-profit organization. The of a corporation or company typically reports to the board of directors and is charged with maximizing the value of the entity.The CEO generally reports to a Board of Directors. The CEO serves at the discretion of the Board of Directors. If the CEO is also the company founder and/or chief stock holder and owner, the Board of Directors is largely an advisory role.”

I would therefore like the FAI to provide some clarity here regarding the role of the board of directors within the association and indeed that of the CEO.
The FAI President goes on to praise his CEO for his achievements, especially that of securing Dublin’s place as a host city for Euro 2020. I too would like to offer my congratulations to all involved at the FAI, this is a massive feat for a country of our stature and is sure to whet the appetite of the Irish public. However, there are still other matters outstanding that have not been addressed. During the ‘Godfather of Irish football’s’ tenure the profile, UEFA coefficient and prize money of the FAI run national league, or the ‘problem child’, as he referred to it, have all dropped considerably. Many clubs lose money by simply entering a team in the league while others have had to drop out of senior football altogether during his reign. You may recall Monaghan United having to abandon Irish football’s Premiere Division during Euro 2012, around the time that the CEO was again making headlines for non football related matters.
Then there is the chaotic state of Irish schoolboy football where a complete lack of structure is severely hampering player development. The panacea prescribed for the ills of underage football a decade ago, the Emerging Talent programme, has made little difference. A quick glance at the birthplaces of players in our under 17 and under 19 national squads shows we are still overly reliant on our diaspora, essentially relying on other associations to develop our players. It seems a long time since Brian Kerr was bringing through a ‘golden generation’of Irish talent.
As I mentioned above I am no business expert so perhaps the FAI could explain to us laymen, the logic in offering such a lengthy contract extension to the man ‘running’ this operation. A man who in the past month has jeopardized the safety of Irish fans in Glasgow by refusing to accept responsibility on behalf of the FAI for ‘ticketgate’ and passing blame on to his Scottish counterparts. There has also been a failure to answer any of the questions put to Mr Delaney regarding ticket allocation, to go along with the heavy-handed stewarding at the USA match and the ‘singing in the Bath’ scandal.
One has to question why a football administrator has such a high-profile public persona, his peculiar search for adoration and celebrity through late night chat shows and that self promotional documentary that was so very Alan Partridge.
Apart from Irish Water due to their widespread media coverage, I don’t think I could name another CEO in the state and certainly not a member of any other sporting organisation. It makes me wonder if Oscar Wilde was right, as I cannot see how this type of publicity can be beneficial to Irish football at all.

Delaney Ignores Responsibilities

Chutzpah is a word I have always liked. Like many words with Hebrew origins, it has an almost violent comedy to it. In recent times the word, particularly in business parlance, has taken on an almost positive quality, an almost audacious courage. It has a much more negative history however, meaning conniving, someone who has have overstepped the boundaries of decency. Leo Rosten in his excellent book ‘The Joys of Yiddish’ describes it as “that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan”. Chutzpah is, essentially, the denial of personal responsibility.

It is funny that whenever I see John Delaney that this word springs to mind. Our Dear Leader could in fact be rechristened, ‘Chutzpah Delaney’. It has a certain ring to it. Last week it appeared that the Godfather of Irish football was on the ropes, the revolution was coming, could this be his Waterloo? Our John is not a man to admit defeat easily however. He knotted the green tie and showed chutzpah, cojones, cunning and words not printable, coming out fighting, almost as if he was the victim. Taking to the national airwaves on the Ray D’Arcy Show the day following ‘Ticketgate’, Delaney laid the blame firmly at the door of the Scottish Football Association. It is difficult to ignore the Alan Partridge comparisons when he has in essence chosen ‘Mid-Morning Natters’ to discuss a subject of such gravity, before proceeding to prove himself to be almost beyond the realms of reality. Not only did he say that the FAI would be “more professional”(a word never before associated with the association!) in their dealings for the return fixture in Dublin, he added they would also do so “in a neighbourly fashion and not in a manner in how they have dealt with us.” I think many Irish fans were happier to deal with the SFA!

It is fair to say this Friday’s game that was always going to have a bit of an edge to it. The familiarity of the players to each other, both sides having former Celtic managers at a game in Celtic Park, the large Irish Diaspora in the city always ensured a certain amount of spice. Add in the Scottish furore around the 2 Scottish born Irish players, made worse by the Scottish manger Gordon Strachan’s comments last week, as well as the importance of the match for European Championship qualification , this was never going to be a Celtic(witha K),love in. Was there really a need then for Delaney to incite further reaction? The obvious thing to do here would be to try a bit of diplomacy, but that was never really on the cards. In an interview with Radio Kerry on Monday evening, the Godfather of Irish football really fears nobody, he merely confirmed his previous comments. “This is a derby game, it’s a Friday night in Glasgow and there’ll be tension in the air. To have pockets of Irish fans stuck in Scottish areas is not the correct thing to do”.
We are back to that word again, chutzpah. He has completely ignored his own responsibilities here. He was given a 5% allocation, mismanaged it and then said he expected the SFA to have increased the allocation and that they had told him the game was sold out, incorrectly. Perhaps they should have increased the away section, but that is extraneous to the fact that he effectively gambled with tickets that were never his to stake.
One reason why the SFA refused the increase anyway was the fact that many of these fans had already begun to purchase tickets through Scotland. Irish fans were left with little alternative but to try and get them this way while the Scots didn’t want to encourage further away supporters in.
There will be an estimated seven to ten thousand Irish fans in the stadium as is; you can understand the Scottish concerns. Surely the sensible thing for the Chief Executive of the away football association would have been to have organised this better in advance? Or then, having realised the error of his ways admitted some culpability? He could have acknowledged the serious flaws in the way tickets are distributed away games and look at ways of addressing this issue. He could certainly have managed to avoid causing further anxiety for those who have to sit in the ‘home’ sections of Celtic Park.

The fans left most disgruntled by Delaney’s actions are those from the YBIG.ie fans forum. (YBIG stands for ‘You Boys in Green for those outside the loop). Many contributors to this website were those left empty handed by the FAI, lads who have travelled the globe as goodwill ambassadors for the FAI. It is evident from their reaction to the CEO’S attempts to lay the blame outside Hampden Park that they are not willing to let this matter lay.

“YBIG have clearly proved that the FAI system to allocate tickets spectacularly failed, irrespective of the size of the allocation. Many of the hardcore supporters that the Chief Executive mentions will be sitting with the Scottish supporters are a result of the fact that the FAI have no clear and transparent system in place to allocate tickets. These supporters have acquired “home tickets” for other games due to the same failures in FAI ticketing which occurred here.

In previous statements the FAI confirmed that tickets were allocated to “known away supporters”. As outlined in our previous statements, YBIG have shown that there were fundamental issues with the allocation. This is not the first time this has happened and without significant change it will not be the last.”
The group had previously sent an e-mail to John Delaney himself, outlining ten clear questions they wanted answered on the issue ticket allocation. The response to this letter was sent by a newly appointed ‘Supporters Liaison Officer’. As we have now come to expect, not one of those ten queries were addressed. (You can find the letter and response here http://www.ybig.ie/forum/ticket-allocation-letter-to-the-fai_topic50389.html )

Throughout this debacle, Delaney has portrayed himself as a valiant hero. He has made constant reference to how the association bought corporate tickets for fans out of their own coffers and at a loss.
“We went out and bought 150 tickets personally at £125 sterling and we’re selling them to those fans at £45 sterling”. He fails to mention that these tickets, like all modern corporate outings to a sports event, come without a marked price, not that we have any reason to distrust Our Dear Leader.
In the finest traditions of Irish politicians he has managed to flit in and out of the media spotlight without ever properly discussing the serious matter at hand. There were far more suitable platforms to debate this issue than local radio or a trivial morning radio show. It would even be more fitting if a man on his gargantuan salary could manage to respond to emails that are addressed to him. Instead we are still left wondering what this salary gets Irish football, because it certainly isn’t answers or solutions.