St Pat's chairman Garrett Kelleher accuses FAI chiefs Gary Owens and Niall Quinn of delivering 'zero' to clubs

Garrett Kelleher has accused FAI chiefs Gary Owens and Niall Quinn of delivering "zero" to SSE Airtricity League clubs in Irish football's struggle to restart after the lockdown.

St Pat's chairman Kelleher clashed with the FAI's interim CEO Owens at a meeting last Friday, when the clubs were expecting a financial package that would allow them to return to competitive action.

Instead, they were told that they could receive between €100,000 and €160,000 - but only if the four clubs in Europe make a contribution to the pit from their UEFA prize-money.

Dundalk are reportedly willing to shoulder the majority of that burden but late night talks on Sunday between the FAI and the four clubs failed to find a resolution.

Yesterday's planned meeting between the FAI and the Premier League clubs was pushed back to Wednesday, although First Division clubs said they had a "very positive meeting" with Owens and Quinn.

Kelleher had clearly had enough and fired off an email critical of Owens and Quinn, the interim deputy CEO, to FAI board members Paul Cooke, Dick Shakespeare and Martin Heraghty - and asking them to intervene.

“I am of the firm view that, albeit their intentions may be well meaning and they may have spent a considerable amount of time and effort over the last six months, Gary and Niall have failed and failed badly," wrote Kelleher.

“The domestic game is at a critical juncture where any more wrong or naive moves made by the executives could do even longer lasting damage.

"They have lost the confidence of St Patrick’s Athletic, I can’t speak for anyone else."

Late last night, the FAI board issued a statement expressing its support of Owens and Quinn. 

It read: "The board of the Football Association of Ireland notes the correspondence received from Garrett Kelleher this evening. 

"The FAI has engaged in intensive and ongoing consultations with relevant stakeholders, including all SSE Airtricity League clubs, with regard to the resumption of the League. 

"The board is fully supportive of the efforts being made by the executive team in this regard and we will continue to support these endeavours."

Kelleher claimed that Owens and Quinn had raised hopes of funding from a number of different sources, but said: "As we all know as of this afternoon, zero has been delivered.” Earlier, Derry City publicly expressed dissatisfaction with the association's financial package to re-start the league. In a statement, the club insisted the package didn't take into account the Foylesiders' efforts to keep staff on full pay during the shutdown. "The Derry City Board are not yet convinced that the proposed distribution is equitable," read the statement. And Sligo Rovers' treasurer David Rowe also insisted that the club can't play out the season under the FAI's proposals. Kelleher's dramatic intervention came after some optimism was expressed yesterday that the majority of the top flight clubs could still agree to a curtailed 13-match league programme. It is felt that if the League restart is brought forward to the end of July or start of August - and if the Covid-19 payment scheme for players is extended to the end of September - then a majority could find the way open to return. Derry also suggested that next month's planned four-team tournament involving Derry, Dundalk, Shamrock Rovers and Bohs is now unlikely to happen - and that would certainly be the case if the league restarted earlier. While the League's four clubs in Europe favour a longer campaign, others fear the financial consequences of having to play on to mid-December. However PFAI chairman Stephen McGuinness also warned that "irreparable damage to the brand" will be done to the League if it doesn't return this season.