John Delaney was the elephant in the room at yesterday’s marathon press briefing - but the FAI refused to answer any questions about their former chief executive.
FAI officials made it clear from the outset of the near three-hour press conference that any queries relating to the association’s Executive Vice President would be ignored.
Not once did anyone from the FAI mention Delaney by name.
FAI president Donal Conway was asked about the future role of ‘Executive Vice President’, which was created - for the first time - for Delaney in March.
Since April, Delaney has effectively been placed on gardening leave pending an internal review which remains ongoing.
Conway said: “That’s a member of staff that I think we have said earlier, is not what today is about and that’s not what I’m in a position to be discussing today.
“Today I’m talking about the Governance Review Report.”
An ‘Executive Performance and Remuneration Committee’ is to be set up and tasked with setting pay and conditions for the FAI’s next permanent chief executive.
Meanwhile, Sport Ireland chief executive John Treacy expressed satisfaction with a “very good document” yesterday.
And while he - and Sport Minister Shane Ross - wanted all current board members to quit, he understands why it was recommended that up to two stay on in an interim basis.
“If you were on any board you wouldn’t want everyone to go at the same time - it’s a short period of time, only a year,” he said.
“This is a first step. We’re doing a full audit through KOSI as everyone knows (due in September). They’re two very important steps in terms of restoration of (Sport Ireland) funding to the FAI.”
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.
