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Former FAI Executive Director John Delaney lobbied association president Donal Conway to sign a lucrative salary package in March 2019 and vowed on the “life of his daughter” that there would be no future revelations to regret it. .
The claim is made in a new book by journalists Mark Tighe and Paul Rowan that traces Delaney’s leadership of the FAI, his controversial departure and the crisis that has engulfed the association for the past 18 months.
The authors had a series of disclosures in March and April last year in The Sunday Times, including details of a € 100,000 personal loan from Delaney to the FAI, which was not properly recorded in the accounts.
On Saturday, March 23, 2019, just six days after that disclosure, and with questions about FAI finances, Delaney, Conway, then-Honorary Secretary Michael Cody, and other officials were in Gibraltar to watch the 1-0 scoreline of the Republic of Ireland. victory in qualifying for the European Championship.
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March 23, 2019; Enda Stevens of the Republic of Ireland during the UEFA EURO2020 Qualifier Group D match between Gibraltar and the Republic of Ireland at the Victoria Stadium in Gibraltar. Photo by Seb Daly / Sportsfile
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In the hours leading up to the night, rumors began to circulate that Delaney was considering resigning from the position she had held for more than 14 years. Media organizations were struggling to find out exactly what was happening in Gibraltar, and even some board members who had not traveled to the Rock were unsure what was happening. As the events unfolded, a major qualifying match against one of Europe’s minnows was becoming a mere sideshow to events taking place behind closed doors in a luxurious hotel.
It soon emerged that, rather than resign, Delaney intended to step down from his CEO position to fill a newly created position of executive vice president, with Rea Walshe, the chief operating officer, becoming interim CEO.
In the book Champagne Football, published this week by Penguin, it is claimed that Delaney insisted to Cody and Conway that their lucrative new agreement had to be signed and sealed that day in Gibraltar. The deal included Delaney’s new salary arrangements, as well as a commitment to honor previous promises about pay and bonuses that he claimed had been made to him.
Conway, according to Tighe and Rowan, was very reluctant to reach a deal in Gibraltar, saying during a meeting in Delaney’s hotel room at the Rock Hotel that they would have to wait until they returned to Ireland to sign it. Delaney, however, insisted that Cody and Conway had the authority to finish it on the spot. Conway recalls asking Delaney to assure him that there would be no future disclosures that would make him unsuitable for his new role or make him untenable.
“I ask you directly. We have worked together for a long time,” the book quotes Conway as saying to Delaney, who replied, “No way. In my daughter’s life you will not hear that.”
Conway agreed to sign the deal, which was written on hotel stationery. It was entitled: ‘Heads of agreement on the contract between the FAI and [John Delaney] in relation to the new role of the former CEO in the association as Executive Vice President ”.
Under the terms of the handwritten agreement, Delaney would remain on his CEO salary of € 360,000 a year until the end of 2019, at which point it would drop to € 100,000. You would be entitled to bonuses of up to 200,000 euros per year, the terms of which were established and based on agreed targets. In addition, he would keep his office in Abbotstown, his company car and parking space, his credit card and mobile phone, and his personal assistant. You would get two VIP tickets and two box tickets for all local internationals, another 10 tickets to buy and travel with the official match for away games.
Delaney also insisted that the financial commitments the FAI made to him in 2014 must be honored. The book states that although Cody was aware of those commitments, he struggled to remember them. However, Conway was in the dark.
Under the 2014 agreement reached with Cody and then-honorary treasurer Eddie Murray, Delaney would have to pay an additional € 3 million if he saw the term of his CEO contract until the end of 2020.
Despite serving on the FAI board since 2005, before he became president in 2018, Conway knew nothing of the deal until this meeting in his hotel room. He suggested that the deal be finalized upon his return to Dublin after he had a chance to review the paperwork. Delaney insisted that the new agreement be signed immediately. Ultimately, it was agreed that Delaney’s new terms “would reflect two earlier agreements” made “regarding the bonus and pension agreements.”
In the days leading up to the deal, board members had raised concerns about Delaney. Delaney had filed for an injunction the week before in Superior Court to prevent details of the controversial loan he made to the association two years earlier from being made public. On the way to Gibraltar, Delaney seemed distracted and spent a lot of time on his phone before and after landing.
In Gibraltar, there were a series of meetings between Delaney, board members and FAI staff. The proposed new role, the FAI stated, had been created as part of an ongoing association governance review, but was not aware of it from Sport Ireland.
Essentially, the new role would allow Delaney to remain on UEFA’s influential executive committee, a position valued at € 100,000 per year.
Board members, some of whom were back in Ireland and included in conference calls, were unclear if the meetings that took place were formal board meetings. Some also complained that they could not properly listen to discussions on the phone.
When asked about this by the Sunday Independent on Friday, an FAI spokesperson said: “No comment.”
In Gibraltar, Delaney constantly looked at her phone and called people. Among the people he called that night were Sport Ireland president Kieran Mulvey and then-sports minister Shane Ross to inform them of his new role. In December, at an Oireachtas hearing, Mulvey said the call had been “a courtesy,” but denied a deputy’s suggestion that he had offered the beleaguered advice on the call.
Before the traveling delegation boarded a flight home after the game, the FAI announced details of the role of executive vice president, but Delaney’s salary was initially kept private. Delaney had continued his phone activity during the game.
The following day, the Sunday Independent reported that the FAI had become the subject of a complaint to the Office of the Director of Corporate Compliance (ODCE), and it was revealed in The Sunday Times that Delaney had been living in houses rented by the FAI. for a decade. The benefit was paid in addition to her salary. The same newspaper also revealed that Delaney held a € 69,000 James Bond-themed 50th birthday party at Mount Juliet, Kilkenny, in 2017, with the FAI paying the bill. Delaney eventually returned 50,000 euros to the association.
In an appearance on the Oireachtas Sports Committee a few weeks later, Delaney made a brief statement but declined to answer questions asked by TDs and senators, citing legal advice. Within weeks, his grip on the association loosened as more details were revealed about his salary, benefits and the perilous state of FAI finances. Delaney had promised the FAI would be debt-free by 2020, but last Christmas it had 62 million euros in the red and needed a government bailout in January with help from Uefa and the Bank of Ireland to secure its future.
Numerous investigations were launched to examine the association’s corporate governance and financial affairs. The FAI commissioned separate reports from auditors Grant Thornton and Mazars. Sport Ireland asked the Northern Irish accounting firm KOSI to examine the FAI matters. Since then, the Mazars and KOSI reports have been forwarded to gardaí. The ODCE investigation is ongoing.
Delaney could not be reached yesterday for comment.
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