Noel Mooney's appointment as interim FAI boss won’t help the association’s push to have government funding restored, Minister for Sport Shane Ross warned today.
And Ross has called on the crisis-hit FAI to reconsider handing Mooney the reins, just three days before he officially starts his six-month secondment from UEFA.
Mooney is a former FAI employee but left for UEFA at the end of 2011.
Two years ago, he praised the work of former FAI chief executive John Delaney during a guest speaker address at the association’s AGM.
Sport Ireland stopped its funding to the FAI in April after scandal rocked Irish football’s governing body.
Speaking before a stakeholders forum into Irish football at the Mansion House in Dublin, Ross said today: “We’re very keen that funding should be restored as soon as possible.
“How far is up to the FAI. If they get their corporate governance in order, funding will be restored.
“Noel Mooney being appointed, of course it doesn’t (help). That’s a decision which the FAI has certainly provisionally made. Hopefully it’s one they’ll change their mind on.
“I’ve spoken to the FAI. We had a meeting, Mr Griffin and I, with the FAI last week and we asked them to reconsider.
“I hope that they are re-considering that at the moment because it would fracture relations further if they did take a step back.
“They’ve taken a step forward in saying the (board) is going to resign, that’s something which we would thoroughly welcome.
“But I think it would be a step back if they decided to appoint, without any transparent process, a general manager who hasn’t been through a process and is not independent, having been with the FAI in the past.”
FIFA can suspend member nations if they deem there is state interference in a national association.
But Ross said: "There is no political interference at all. What we have said is if we’re giving you funding then we’re going to be happy with its corporate governance. "
“If we’re going to be happy with corporate governance we’re determined that those people who are appointed and elected to the board are done so in a satisfactory way.
"We also don't want to see and prefer not to see people from the past. I want to see people who are completely new, fresh and independent of links with the past.
"Noel Mooney's appointment does not seem to us to be consistent with the drive for reform with new faces and new independent faces."
On today’s forum, Ross added: "It's no secret that the traumas and troubles of the FAI have prompted this initiative. We want to see that morale is raised today.
“This is about the grassroots of Irish football today, as much as anything else, because in this room we have the beating heart of Irish football.
"There has been a loss of trust in the FAI and a loss of confidence in the FAI amongst the public. "That's not a situation that any government wants to see. Trust has tanked. We want to assist in restoring confidence."
Among those speaking at today's forum - attended by 170 people - are Niall Quinn, Pat Fenlon, Stephanie Roche, Stephen McGuinness and former FAI boss Brendan Menton.
Economist Colm McCarthy, President of the OCI Sarah Keane and Tony Considine of supporters group YBIG are also among the guest speakers.
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