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The FAI spent nearly € 1 million for John Delaney’s personal expenses during his last five years as CEO, according to a new report.
The findings were part of an investigation by Newry-based accounting firm Kosi Corporation hired by Sport Ireland to investigate FAI finances.
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It is featured in the new book Champagne Football, serialized in the Sunday Times and the Irish Sun.
The report was sent to Gardai and the Director of Corporate Compliance last November.
The FAI squandered the huge sum on “excessive” spending for Delaney, who had a salary of 360,000 euros before his resignation last September.
The Association paid € 125,000 on the company’s credit card for the embarrassed football boss, which included 279 cash withdrawals between 2015 and 2019 for a total of € 50,000.
Delaney’s other personal expenses on her FAI credit card included jewelry, limos, hotels, and online shopping sites.
Kosi discovered that another FAI executive had used the card to pay for five spa treatments on Delaney’s behalf at a cost of € 1,000 at a luxury hotel in Turkey in 2018.
The organization also paid € 316,000 in legal fees for the defamation cases it took in connection with the 2016 Rio Olympics ticket sales scandal.
Separate legal fees totaling € 200,000 were also discovered.
BIRTHDAY BASH
The FAI also squandered € 70,000 for Delaney’s 50th anniversary party, according to Kosi’s investigation, although a separate investigation by Mazars accountants put the total bill in excess of € 80,000.
The lavish party at Mount Juliet in Kilkenny, hosted by the football chief’s then-girlfriend, Emma English, included a massive fireworks display and a James Bond theme due to Delaney’s love of spy movies.
The centerpiece was an ice sculpture of a Walther PPK, Bond’s pistol of choice, and the evening featured a Delaney roast by Mrs Brown’s Boys creator Brendan O’Carroll.
Guests included then-Ireland manager Martin O’Neill, broadcaster Eamon Dunphy and Labor leader Alan Kelly.
A huge birthday cake had been designed to resemble the Aviva Stadium, which has been partially owned by FAI since it was built on the site of the old Lansdowne Road site in 2010.
Delaney insisted the stadium was his greatest achievement despite poor ticket sales and lingering questions about whether the debt was too great for the association to pay.
Kosi’s investigation also found that the FAI paid € 242,000 in personal rent, airport and travel company expenses for Delaney between 2015 and 2018.
FOOTBALL CHAMPAGNE
Champagne Football also reveals that Delaney told the FAI board that he was “credited” to them in the amount of 100,000 euros, but Kosi’s investigation found that the total amount of Delaney’s expenses covered by them was 972,626.42 euros.
The disgraced ex-boss made refunds of € 227,629.42 to the FAI in 2017 and 2018, which included € 50,000 for the cost of his birthday party.
The excess benefit paid to Delaney during his last five years amounted to € 724,629.42, but this figure did not include the € 267,500 Delaney received for defamation actions in 2016.
The total figure also did not include the 95,000 euros paid to Delaney’s ex-girlfriend Susan Keegan between 2012 and 2014, according to Kosi.
They discovered that a payment of € 25,000 referring to Keegan on the FAI accounts went directly to Delaney’s bank account.
The FAI was unable to explain the reason for the payments to Keegan, who has denied receiving most of the money.
BRINK OF INSOLVENCY
The investigation found that between 2015 and 2018 the Association was repeatedly on the verge of insolvency and there were months in which they wrote checks for amounts in excess of what was available in their bank accounts or overdraft line.
Delaney granted a € 100,000 bridge loan to the FAI in April 2017, but at the time they were facing a shortfall of € 400,000 if they cashed checks worth € 593,000 that they had written.
Gardai, who works on the ODCE investigation, has criticized Delaney for seeking extra time in Superior Court to assess which of the 270,000 files seized from his FAI email claims are private or legally privileged.
In an affidavit, Garda investigator Richard Byrne said: “Delaney seeks to complicate what is actually a relatively simple process.”
It also said the 100 man-days Delaney claimed it would take to review the files could compromise ODCE’s performance of its legal obligations.
The Sunday Times reported yesterday that they contacted Delaney’s attorney, Aidan Eames, in July and said: “Please do not contact this office regarding this or related matters as we will not respond.”
Delaney left the FAI a year ago with a handshake worth € 462,000.
He now works in London after establishing the management consulting company Outperform Now.
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