FAI and the €5M

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Betsy Og

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Must say I think the FAI and John Delaney are getting a bit hard done by. I suppose it depends on the facts known at the time, but from what I see and can recall:

  1. We weren't getting back in (yes, they asked that, ha ha ha ha)... I feel like there should be a few asterisks describing that particular gentleman, but not kosher I know.
  2. We'd threatened the law.
  3. My guess is we hadn't a pups chance.
  4. We settled out of court. Happens all the time.
  5. There was a confidentiality clause. Again no surprise there, routine.
  6. No-one trousered the money - so equating this to general FIFA skulduggery is unfair.
  7. The money was accounted for - ok in a subtle fashion but see 5 above.
So really the only point is do you think it was it was a sell out (5M pieces of silver), we forfeited our World Cup place for a shady deal. I think we probably got more than we might otherwise - imagine the FAI burned €2M on a case they lost - where would the self-righteous brigade be then??
 
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I can't believe for a minute the FAI would genuinely consider a court case against FIFA.
 
Did we forfeit our place? No, we didn't have one to forfeit. A refereeing error played some part in that, but there is no recourse within the rules of the game.

I think the contentious piece is FIFA have stated this was a loan to be repaid if we qualified for the next world cup. In essence, it was in the FAI's interest not to qualify for 2014.

Also, Delaney did not say it was a loan, but did say the payment is accounted for in the FAI's accounts, but some 5 years on, there's still no reference to this payment in the published accounts. So it's not clear that skulduggery hasn't taken place. The speculation is that they may have waiting until 2014 to book the money in the accounts. Wouldn't it be an unusual accounting practice to sit on €5M without reference to it in the accounts? It raises questions on what happened the money was if only accounted for in last year's accounts. Was it 'resting' in someone's account?

More to run on this story yet I think.
 
To me it just shows how FIFA was run - Delaney clearly knew he had a chance of getting some compensation out of the playoff fallout and took the opportunity. I'd bet my bottom dollar he wasn't the first international association representative to try this, nor the last. They all clearly knew this was how it was done - go to Sepp if you have a grievance and he'll sort you out with a fistful of dollars if he thinks it will make you go away quietly.
 
From what I read today it went in as a loan, then when FAI knew it wasnt repayable it was the loan was written off and the amount shown as income (Dr. Loan, Cr. P&L). There's no suggestion the cash was ever anywhere than under FAI control. I accept this repayable loan was a bit odd, but I dont really think it meant FAI didnt want us to qualify. (On a somewhat related note I'm wondering will this country ever tire of enquiries - what's the betting this DOB banking thing wastes millions, tells us unusual but not illegal and/or illegal as hell but the State will recoup zero).
 
The cheek of Enda Kenny coming out today saying the FAI has questions to answer...and himself gone to ground the past week since Catherine Murphy spoke in the Dail.

This is all about timing...as in this story is breaking at the worst possible time. It just looks terrible the FAI pocketing 5m and at the same time Delaney mouthing off the past week that FIFA need to become more open and require a radical overhaul
 
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