FAI SHOWN A YELLOW CARD

Kelly's funding warning after Oireachtas appearance

- BY MARK MCCADDEN

THE FAI have been warned that funding in next month's budget could be affected by yesterday's Oireachtas Committee appearance.

Alan Kelly TD, chair of the committee, blasted the Association as “disrespectful to the people of Ireland, to the Oireachtas, to the taxpayers of Ireland” after a series of questions went unanswered.

However, FAI CEO David Courell insisted there were no fresh funding fears and that Irish football was looking for an “investment” rather than a “handout”.

He was part of a team from Abbotstown that declined to answer several questions posed by committee members, “citing guidance from An Garda Siochana and separate legal advice" regarding ongoing investigations.

The meeting was held to explore issues around safeguarding in football, a topic that came to the fore when former female footballers made allegations of abuse and manipulative behaviour, dating back to the 1990s.

The FAI only attended yesterday's meeting after a u-turn a day earlier on its decision not to take part, something Kelly took issue with both in the meeting and afterwards.

“Today was, in my time as a member of the Oireachtas, one of the strangest committee meetings I was ever at,” he said.

“Firstly the whole precedent set by the FAI in trying to create conditionality around their appearance, considering they are so funded by the taxpayer and had to be bailed out by the taxpayer, was frankly unprecedented and utterly wrong.