Ian Mallon: Will David Courell make FAI’s litigation against Deloitte disappear?
Role Of Pile Courell: For Ceo Is Interim The Top David
Up to 160 candidates have applied for the role of chief executive at the Football Association of Ireland (FAI).
The vast interest — which doesn’t include recommendations from an executive recruitment agency — has been whittled down to a “long shortlist”, with interviews set to take place in the coming weeks.
Top of the pile, for now, is interim CEO David Courell, who is moving towards his first 100 days in an acting role, and dealing with myriad challenges within the organisation.
Chief among them is worsening staff morale, depreciating brand value, and that extraordinary inability to appoint a men’s national team coach, with England at the Aviva Stadium just two months away.
While Jonathan Hill has been consigned to history, insiders say little has changed at the FAI under Courell — who remains as dependent as his predecessor on a plethora of outside consultants to advise on basic operational needs.
Key among the services being provided by these expensive advisers are marketing and communications, with the former, in particular, haemorrhaging more money than it is returning, according to a key source.
Another key issue is the ongoing depreciation of commercial values around various sponsorship assets, following scandal after scandal in Irish football.
A second source told that the issue of securing revenue through new sponsors is proving “an extremely difficult task”.
To be fair to Courell, with just three months passed since he took over, he is facing a job that would challenge even the most experienced of CEO.
There is one significant area which may lend itself to a major achievement for Courell, however, and that is to bring to a conclusion a potentially disastrous litigation against Deloitte, which the FAI is still pursuing for professional negligence.
It has been four years since the FAI initiated proceedings against the accountancy consultants for an alleged failure of financial oversight in its role as auditor of the organisation’s books.
Deloitte claims it had been “misled” and had been given assurances by the board of the FAI that all relevant materials had been provided during its 23-year stewardship of company accounts.
In December 2019, flagging debt of around €65m, Deloitte couldn’t declare if the FAI would continue as “a going concern”, and reported the organisation to the Company Registration Office.
Deloitte told us in the recent past that it “is fully defending the proceedings”, and is confident it will achieve success in that defence.
We don’t know what material evidence the FAI’s legal team, Beale and Co, has against Deloitte. The strongest claim appears to be that it will say the firm didn’t properly review its own work on an ongoing basis.
The case will effectively come down to whether the FAI can prove that Deloitte was most responsible for the financial calamity, and disprove counter claims that it had deliberately hidden vital data.
This area of disclosure may prove vital for the accountancy firm, and is where its case looks quite strong — particularly if evidence is given on the FAI’s behaviour whenever auditors were onsite at Abbbotstown.
can reveal that, when inspectors visited the building, there was a culture of obfuscation towards Deloitte by the FAI.
Key FAI management staff were directed not to co-operate or communicate with Deloitte personnel during onsite inspections, particularly around the high financial stress period of 2017.
At one FAI executive meeting, directors were warned not to speak to or acknowledge Deloitte staff during an audit due later that week.
The senior managers were also told that they should verbally communicate to their own staff and that they should “under no circumstances” engage with Deloitte, even in the staff canteen or other “public” areas around Abbotstown.
It might be expected that Deloitte has a star witness in its defence, which will provide evidence of these behaviours, or perhaps something even stronger — testimony from a senior financial figure.
This is where Courell has an opportunity and can bring considerable influence to bear, given his own background with Deloitte.
Courell was a management consultant at the firm in Britain for almost seven years, where he entered as an analyst before promotion to manager — working on accounts for Sky, Aviva, and other key clients.
He will understand the culture which exists in the company, one of the “Big Four” global consultancy firms, and will know what levers to pull to bring matters to a close.
We are assuming that the FAI doesn’t have its own smoking gun but, if evidence begins to stack up against it, it will sit on the cusp of another highly damaging financial and PR disaster should it lose.
Even if the FAI wins the case, it will come at what cost?
A reintroduction to the Irish public of one of the greatest financial scandals outside of banking that the country has known.
In the meantime, Courell will, in the short- to medium-term, be officially interviewed by the FAI for the permanent job of CEO.
While we know that both former FAI president Gerry McAnaney and ex-chairman Roy Barrett supported Hill over the €20,000-plus expenses and holidays-in-lieu deal, Courell’s position around the issue is unknown.
In his only media appearance since his April appointment, Courell raised eyebrows when he appeared on RTÉ to hail Hill’s and director of football Mark Canham’s leadership of the failed attempts to land a manager for the Republic of Ireland.
“Up until a matter of weeks ago when I took on this interim post, I myself was air-gapped from the process. I think that’s testament to how professionally it’s been run,” Courell said.
Another FAI source said that Courell would regularly clash with his CEO at senior executive meetings, and indeed at the FAI annual general meeting at Christmas.
For now, Courell — who lives in Straffan, Co Kildare — has been described as “good at what he does” by the source, “someone who is energetic and meticulously organised, but rigid in his management style”.
At the time of Courell’s appointment as COO in 2021, Hill said of his now would-be successor: “He is going to be a key player.” Just how much of a key player, we will soon find out.
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One of the nation’s most exciting and colourful racing festivals is almost here with Killarney Races JulyFest set for the off.
From Monday July 15 through to Friday this unique event covering all sporting, entertainment and fashion needs of racegoers will see thousands converge on the scenic racecourse and town for one of four annual festivals.
The mixture of flat and national hunt racing will cater for all desires with a significant prize fund on offer to encourage the best trainers to the Kerry track.
On the Tuesday a prize fund of €100,000 will be on offer for the seven-race flat card.
The event features Family Day (Wednesday) and the Lee Strand Ladies Day on Friday, with Frankie Foster from Raceday and Racing TV’s social media channel leading festivities throughout much of the festival.
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One of the great cross-sporting charitable endeavours has been announced for next month with the Hurling for Cancer Research all-star match which returns to Netwatch Cullen Park in Carlow on August 12.
On hand for the game, which is run alongside the Irish Cancer Society, will be a multitude of stars from the world of racing, GAA and other sports for “this unique hurling match in aid of the Irish Cancer Society’s cancer research programmes”.
The brainchild of trainer Jim Bolger, with Davy Russell central to the initiative, this year’s event will see the likes of Kerry great Paudie Clifford, Kilkenny legend TJ Reid, Aintree Grand National and Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Rachael Blackmore, along with Dubs stars Con O’Callaghan and Ciarán Kilkenny tog out.
Hurling for Cancer Research has raised €1.5 million to date for cancer research, to date.