March 22 – John Delaney, chief executive of the Football Association of Ireland (FAI), has unwittingly become the centre of attention over loaning €100,000 of his own money to the federation in 2017.
Earlier this week Delaney, a UEFA executive committee member, confirmed he had made the loan to help the FAI through a “cash-flow” problem.
In a statement, the 51-year-old said: “I confirm that I made a once-off bridging loan to the association to aid a very short-term cash flow issue. This is the only occasion on which I provided the association with a short-term loan.”
Delaney is nevertheless due to appear before a parliamentary committee on April 3 to be questioned about the loan even though, according to the FAI, it was repaid in full two months later.
The Irish Times reported on Monday that that the FAI should have published details of the loan in its annual accounts.
News of the transaction emerged after Delaney failed in an attempt to obtain an injunction preventing publication of the story by a Sunday newspaper.
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