John Delaney gets permanant role
Delaney handed permanant role
Paul O'Hehir
11/03/2005: John Delaney was today appointed chief executive officer of the FAI a permanent basis. The 37-year-old had held the position on an interim basis following Fran Rooney's acrimonious departure last November.
His appointment comes as no surprise though. He has a long family tradition with the association and agreed a number of significant financial deals for the organisation in recent weeks that bolstered his hand considerably.
But of any single act that aided Delaney’s bid, it was his intervention to smooth the fractious relationship between the FAI and the Government before Christmas.
The two sides were at loggerheads over when the chief executive's post might be publicly advertised and harmony was only restored when Delaney said the job would be open to competition before the end of the year.
His intervention secured the release of Sports Council funding to the association which the Government threatened to withold.
Delaney's appointment will be welcomed at grass-roots level with many believing the Waterford man is the right figure to drive the game forward in Ireland.
The position - something of a poisoned chalice down the years - was formally advertised on December 31st and Delaney's appointment today brings to a close a process that reportedly saw up to 40 people interviewed.
It is believed between seven and 10 candidates were put forward for a final round yesterday.
All were interviewed by a five-man panel made up of FAI president Milo Corcoran, secretary Michael Cody, Sports Council / FAI Liason group representative Con Haugh, Sport's Council nominee Ronnie McBrien and Dublin City manager John Fitzgerald.
Speaking before Christmas when accepting the interim role, Delaney stressed an urgent need for the FAI to get "back-to-basics" and to "concentrate on football matters."
He echoed those sentiments today.
"The development of the game throughout the community as we implement the FAI's Technical Development Plan is an absolute priority," he said.
"We have huge challenges in getting our children interested and active in football and we must invest heavily now in order to reap the benefits in the next ten years."
Delaney has put the redevelopment of Lansdowne Road at the top of his 'to-do' list. The former FAI treasurer said the stadium project was "critical to the future of the game."
The relocation of the FAI offices from Merrion Square to the new Sports Campus at Abbotstown is also a priority if, as expected, the move gets government approval in the coming weeks.
FAI President Milo Corcoran said Delaney's passion for sport, twinned with his experience as a businessman and knowledge of the game was beneficial to the association.
"Great progress has been made over the past three months and I am looking forward to that progress continuing apace under the stewardship of John Delaney," he said.
Interview with John Delaney
Extracts only -
" For our home internationals we have 36k seats, 32k go to regular block bookers, remainder going to away fans corporate sponsors and the media.
( re Croke Park) - " there will be the guts of 76k in attendance. - when you consider 32k go to blockbookers and the GAA will hold the premium that will take us to 42K. The germans and the Welsh FA's have informed us that the intend to take up their full allocation of 7k. Then we are on to 20k or so seats which people on the waiting list will want access to.
We intend to deal with some of those on the waiting list, but definitely their won't be any trouble selling out - for sheer novelty alone Kilkenny City v Waterford Utd would attract 76K to Croke Park"
" the only conundrum is that we don't expect 7000 Slovakians or Cypriots to attend, but either way we intend to put the away fans on Hill 16 which is a perfect location in terms of security and segregation."