John Fallon: The FAI keep walking into offside traps of their own making

The day began with Paschal Donohoe, Minister for Public Expenditure, being forced to take shelter from the rain at Ringsend Park but not hiding from issuing a stone-cold assessment of State support for football.

In his view, existing schemes like the retitled Community Sports Facility Funds and Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF) cater for its needs.

"We're already delivering and the League of Ireland is going in a very positive direction," he said. "We're able to do that without recourse to Apple funding."

Everybody wants a bite of the €14bn tax arrears from the tech giant, smoothing the handouts during yesterday's budget, but it must be the only outlet the FAI hadn't flagged as a potential source of exchequer funding.

From the launch of their Facilities Investment Strategy in June 2023, the FAI identified a series of envelopes through which the majority of their State-dependent 15-year, €863m blueprint will be derived.

Among the tranches of monies targeted were the Shared Ireland Fund and and Immigrant Investor Programme. An increase in the betting levy from two to three percent has been a recurrent theme. Then recently introduced to the lexicon, publicly at least, was the Brexit Adjustment Reserve.

This carried the potential of procuring €20m over two years, interim chief executive David Courell informed delegates at the annual general meeting only 11 days earlier. It formed part of what was presented as the FAI's manifesto.

All sounded plausible when the criteria of industries being impacted by Brexit was mentioned, for the FAI has since 2020 sole responsibility for developing players until they reach the threshold of 18 before being permitted to join UK clubs.

A nice, novel soundbite to focus the minds when the investment demands for subsidising facilities and academies is so acute, only that the train had left the station.

" All the negotiations on the BAR concluded some time ago," said Minister Donohoe, his department in charge of that portfolio.

By an odd coincidence, the FAI were staging a briefing on their Pathways Plan, an hour later and a mile away at the national stadium.

Their latest wheeze slapped down by the Government's chief bean counter, priority switched to the betting tax supplying the windfall.

Expensive preparatory work with their external public relations consultants focused on diversionary tactics to the inevitable backlash.

It transpires that in spite of all constant chatter about the urgency of funding towards the 24 national academies, not until the eve of the AGM did the Sports Minister receive a detailed breakdown of the costs from the FAI.

"The AGM wasn't the first time we talked about that BAR fund," insisted Marc Canham, elevated from the FAI's Director of Football to Chief Football Officer.

If that was supposed to afford mitigation, it only served to deepen the shambolic attempt at trying to fly a kite that never left the ground.

Considering this was a measure discussed internally and the abundance of "positive conversations" with state officials, how it made it into the chief executive's slideshow to members is baffling.

It remains to be seen what fresh avenue for grants the FAI will broach next; an exercise which in essence misses the point. This should be an easy sell.

Football, as the biggest participative sport in the country, is lagging behind its peers home and abroad, wounded by historical neglect inside and outside the organisation that has left it financially crippled to perform a core task of hothousing talent.

Professionalising the industry is costly, from salaries for staff and players to rental and travel charges, and so the justification for receiving a cut from the taxpayers pot is compelling.

Nevertheless, the regular gaffes in constructing a case are damaging, breeding a narrative of a changed FAI devoid of changed culture.

Coupling this unnecessary bungling with the unspent €30,000 donation by Ireland internationals towards establishing a scholarship scheme, as reported by The42.ie over the weekend, feeds into that perception.

There's sufficient clout in the State's coffers to funnel money into the direction it's most needed without the FAI outlining the anatomy of methods.

A seven-figure annual sum is a pittance in the context of current surpluses and the potential dividend of improved senior Ireland teams, male and female.

Which is why another own-goal was scored by two senior FAI executives spending the SCG day in Brussels with the chief opposition party. Sinn Féin issued a press release as the ministers preached from Cambridge FC, lamenting the BAR "missed opportunity."

Apparently, the trip to the European commission was beneficial for lobbying and networking purposes, but the optics for the FAI were terrible.

Ditto the seven-hour delay in issuing the standard statement of thanks to ministers, for the €45.8m distributed to 508 successful applicants, including themselves.

If the FAI want to ensure the game is played as it should, then there's catch-up from their side in playing the political game. Rectify that and the stars might begin to align.

E: john.fallon@examiner.ie

Kelly had hunch of something being amiss during Dundalk days

Dundalk's demise, on and off the pitch, continues to cast a dark shadow over the domestic season and former player Daniel Kelly makes some interesting observations.

He arrived at Oriel Park ahead of their 2019 title-winning campaign, scoring against KÍ Klaksvik at Lansdowne Road in their run to the Europa League group stages before departing for Derry City this season.

He's saddened by what's ensued since, the financial malaise through ownership changes leaving the club on the brink of collapse just over a fortnight ago.

Four points adrift at the foot of the table with four games left, relegation looks inevitable and there's the prospect of a part-time model being the reality of their First Division existence.

"I didn't see that coming although I sort of had an inkling that something was not fantastic there," explained the nippy winger this week, referring to the takeover by Statsports duo Sean O'Connor and Alan Clarke, along with previous co-owner Andy Connolly, in late 2021.

"Stevie (O'Donnell) had taken over it and we were all told it was going to be this big thing — a local consortium — and everything was going to be sorted. It just did not play out that way.

"My sympathy is with the lads who were not getting paid. You have fellas who are going for mortgages, others whose partners are due to have babies. Four years ago we were playing against Arsenal."

Paying to play for Ireland a symptom of misplaced priorities

Amateur football is positioned uppermost within the FAI’s football pyramid aspiration but it seems players will have to fund their right to represent Ireland.

It was with much fanfare that the governing body announced a new interprovincial competition to determine who’d fly the international flag in Switzerland.

Munster emerged from the quadrangular event in March as victors, their squad of players excited at battling with fellow representatives of Georgia, Northern Ireland and the hosts from October 21-27. Ireland were crowned European champions in 2015.

Strange then that the onus was placed on players, staff and volunteers to generate funds to offset the cost of their training camp and trip. Uefa supply a grant, the FAI contribute but the balance must be covered.

A Last Man Standing competition call to arms, replete with Munster Football Association crest, was circulated far and wide, presented as a fundraiser to support the amateur squad for the Regions Cup. By all accounts, the uptake of €10 entries has been brisk.

Undoubtedly a worthy cause but highly questionable at the same time the FAI is squandering money on spin doctors and various other consultants.