FAI President Donal Conway insists the association will continue to operate even if their reforms are not passed by members at Saturday’s EGM.
Sport Ireland’s suspension of grant aid will not be lifted unless delegates back in full the 78 recommendations outlined in a governance review report.
That grants funds the salaries of 60 development officers but also in jeopardy are large infrastructural projects such as the Dalymount Park redevelopment and construction of a new Academy centre in Cork.
Among the changes in the report are the appointment of four independent directors to a new 12-person board, a third of whom within two years will be female to boost the gender balance.
Aidan Horan, who chaired the review group, had said the FAI would be left in a difficult situation if the reforms failed to obtain the necessary two-thirds majority.
Conway, who faces mounting political pressure to reverse his decision to stay on as President on the board, insisted the FAI had made provision for the worst-case scenario.
Six separate investigations are ongoing at the embattled association and UEFA have laid on a banking facility of €10m, of which €2m has already been drawn down.
“We have a Plan A and Plan B,” said Conway.
“There is a Plan B if the rules aren’t passed. We’d be governed by the old rules.”
The FAI are sticking by their vow not to allow media attend their EGM.
The stance was rounding criticised yesterday by members of the Oireachtas committee on sport, who claimed the policy wasn’t in keeping with the FAI’s vow of promoting transparency.
Conway said: “I personally enquired of other sporting organisations as to what they do, and when they have serious issues of rule changes and policies, a lot of them have no media in attendance.
“They do have a press conference before or after, so we are not an outlier in not having media at an EGM."
If you haven't already, be sure to like our Irish Mirror Sport and Irish Mirror GAA pages on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
