Top football pundit Eamon Dunphy has hit out at John Delaney as pressure continues to mount on the FAI chief.
Amidst the growing controversy, Sports Minister Shane Ross warned the FAI on Sunday that it might not get new funding if “ongoing concerns” relating to corporate governance are not addressed.
John Delaney is now a “very discredited figure” in the eyes of the Irish football community and has abused his position of power, Mr Dunphy claimed.
Last month, The Sunday Times broke the story that Mr Delaney had loaned the FAI €100,000 from his personal bank account in 2017.
On Sunday Mr Dunphy claimed this wasn’t a scandal in itself - but insisted Mr Delaney and the FAI have handled the unfolding situation badly.
Mr Delaney’s dismissive attitude to the grassroots fans that he has always claimed to support was evident when he came before the Oireachtas Sports Committee on Wednesday, Mr Dunphy said.
“This exercise on Wednesday really shocked people, both the arrogance and the dismissive attitude of the witnesses, the FAI,” Mr Dunphy told the Marian Finucane show on RTE Radio 1.
“I think people don’t like to see someone with his power and profile … not providing those people with an account of how he and the association had behaved. It looked very bad.”
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The sports pundit said Mr Delaney’s first big mistake was trying to block the publication of the initial story in The Sunday Times, in relation to the 2017 loan.
“A number of other mistakes have followed on, to leave him now a very discredited figure in the eyes of the football community,” Mr Dunphy said.
“I don’t see a massive scandal here of funds misappropriated. What I do see is somebody who has become far too powerful and ... who really has been heading for a fall.
“But I don’t see any grand larceny here. But an abuse of power, yes.”
Mr Dunphy said the FAI must take action now, in order to remain credible.
“When you add that to the abuse of power we saw on Wednesday, and the dismissive attitude to the public and indeed to the public’s representatives, then the FAI has a problem,” he said.
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“It needs to do something and it needs to really make changes, and it needs to do it very quickly.”
Mr Dunphy insisted that Mr Delaney has been an energetic, visionary advocate for Irish football on an international stage, and he will be hard to replace “when or if he’s lost to soccer”.
Meanwhile, Shane Ross has warned the FAI that it may not be eligible for new funding if its corporate governance is not in order.
The Sports Minister said he had “ongoing concerns relating to corporate governance at the FAI and the circumstances surrounding a financial transaction”.
“We have to look at how they are actually running this sporting body,” Mr Ross told RTE News.
“It seems to me like those questions should be answered. If they’re not answered, we will take the necessary action.
“The necessary action is that not only will the sports grants which have already been frozen, but we will rule out any body which isn’t in good stead in corporate governance from getting large capital sports grants.”
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