David Sneyd

FAI CHIEF EXECUTIVE David Courell insists the organisation’s “conscience is clear” regarding their safeguarding procedures and how they dealt with historical abuse claims from female footballers in the 1990s.

But after a bruising appearance in front of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport, its chairperson Alan Kelly described the FAI’s display as “farcical”, “unprecedented”, and “one of the strangest committee meetings I was ever at”.

Deputy Kelly also said the FAI’s behaviour prior to attending the meeting was “disrespectful to the people of Ireland” after they initially deferred an invitation in July, only to then pull out of this appearance last week, citing legal advice as a Garda investigation is ongoing.

After Kelly said that the FAI had “doubted the committee’s intentions”, the Association performed a dramatic U-turn yesterday, and their five-person delegation faced questions for just under two hours and 40 minutes.

Deputy Kelly also admitted that the way in which the FAI conducted themselves could jeopardise the State funding that is being sought by the League of Ireland for development of academies in next month’s Budget.

The Labour TD for Tipperary North confirmed that he will be writing to Minister for Sport Patrick O’Donovan “on the basis of what we heard today” as he described the FAI’s approach as “ill-judged”.

“You can’t be bailed out by the taxpayer, be funded by the taxpayer, dependent on large significant sums being put forward in this Budget, and then say we’re creating conditionality before we even consider coming in front of you and answering questions,” Deputy Kelly told reporters after today’s session.

“So that whole, I suppose, deliberation by the FAI was ill-judged. They should have come before us the first time around, but even so, coming before us the second time around, creating conditionality and saying they wouldn’t come before us, was disrespectful to the people of Ireland, to the Oireachtas, to the taxpayers of Ireland.

“And I’m sure if the Minister feels the same way as the Committee, well then, obviously, he’ll have to take that into consideration [for funding] — whether it’s in profiling funding, whether it’s in withdrawn funding, that’s really a matter for him, but obviously we’ll be writing to him on the basis of what we heard today.”

Numerous members of the committee grew agitated and concerned by the manner in which the FAI detailed its actions relating to when they first discovered the claims of abuse.

A joint expose by RTÉ and the Sunday Independent in July 2024 revealed allegations from female footballers during the 1990s.

The Sunday Independent subsequently reported on a series of internal FAI emails dating back to May 2023 which discussed the matter, but it emerged during the course of today’s Oireachtas committee meeting that FAI president Paul Cooke, chairman Tony Keohane and Kirsten Pakes, the Child Welfare and Safeguarding Manager, only became aware of the concerns in late January 2024.

Courell was chief operating officer at the time of those May 2023 emails, but has since ascended to CEO. Aoife Rafferty, the FAI’s People & Culture Director manager who was part of today’s delegation, was also involved in that email chain. However, they refused to provide more detail and there was annoyance from committee members at the semantics between “a concern and a complaint” being raised.

The initial proceedings in the committee saw the FAI stonewall questions about when they became aware of the allegations and that drew plenty of ire, with Fianna Fáil’s Peter ‘Chap’ Cleere decrying the FAI’s “toxic culture”.

“I think it was a session whereby quite a few remarks were made, they weren’t necessarily grounded in the reality of the situation,” FAI CEO Courell said afterwards.

“It was frustrating for the committee and the FAI not to be able to expand on some of the areas of the enquiry but, ultimately, we genuinely want to protect the ongoing investigation and justice for all of those involved, so until a point of time where that’s concluded, we won’t be able to expand further.”

When asked about if he fears the FAI’s performance in front of the committee would hamper those hopes of funding, he added: “No, I don’t believe so. As I’ve always maintained, we’ve put forward a really compelling business case.

“This is not a handout. This is an investment as a kickstart for an Irish football industry which we’ve been crying out for decades. We have an opportunity to enable that through support of more than just Government, but Government will be a key part in it, and I’m grateful for the support they’ve shown for us to date and their belief for investment in academies which will hopefully be borne out on Budget date.

“We’re making this proposal on behalf of the clubs. It’s not an ask from the FAI. Ultimately, 82% of what is being sought is intended directly for club employment.

“I think we’ve demonstrated as Dr Una May (Sport Ireland CEO) has said, she’s got huge confidence in the governance reforms we’ve undertaken in recent years. We have been in receipt of taxpayers money over the last number of years. We go through a rigorous auditing process that has been stress tested, including in front of a Public Accounts Committee as recently as a couple of years ago, so I think that lack of confidence is misplaced.”