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06 Dec 2019 17:37:12
Question for Ed002.

I appreciate this is not Liverpool related, but I'm hoping you'll indulge me a little.

I don't know if you're aware of the issues at the Football Association of Ireland, but they're more than €55m in debt and are possibly insolvent. Deloitte were unable to certify them as a going concern when auditing their 2018 accounts. Whilst ultimately I expect some sort of debt restructuring to stop the FAI from outright shutting down, can I ask:

1) Is it actually possible for a national Football Association to effectively cease trading?

2) If so, what would be the consequences? I assume ejection from UEFA and FIFA sanctioned competition for all Irish national sides and League of Ireland clubs would be involved.

{Ed002's Note - (1) Yes they could potentially be forced to cease business and to sell the assets (half of the Aviva Stadium) - if the banks were to go down that route. (2) The consequences would be that FIFA would allow a restructured and newly formed FAI to join but would want guarantees that they could sustain business.

It is unlikely at the moment that it would happen. They need to either refinance the debt and find away to be profitable - right now they are break-even at best - so they can service the debt, or to find a buyer for their holding in the Aviva Stadium}

Agree2 Disagree0

06 Dec 2019 18:34:17
Thanks for the response Ed, much appreciated.

{Ed002's Note - You arew elcome.}

06 Dec 2019 21:50:54
That's actually an interesting topic. I didn't even know it was possible for a countries FA to get into debt lol.

06 Dec 2019 23:39:11
It's easy, hsf.

Just co-fund the construction of a big, shiny stadium with the IRFU and to pay for your end of it, plan to sell corporate boxes at insane rates, right before a global recession starts. That accounts for a lot of it. Fan apathy towards successive managers reducing the gate receipts, and then paying off those managers, doesn't help either. Neither does an apparent lack of a procurement process (for general expenses, not the stadium) and general financial oversight.

To my casual observation the FAI effectively pulled a Leeds. Threw sacks of money at the men's national team brought in Trap and then O'Neill, who were among the highest paid international managers around, and gambled that they'd make the team competitive to attract fans, money into the new stadium, and qualify for major tournaments to get some prize money. We did qualify for two European Championships, tbf, but even as it was clear that Trap and O'Neill were on the decline, they were given new contracts that both had to be paid off early.

And at the same time as this, the League of Ireland winners got about €100,000 in prize money, roughly 1/ 5th of the FAI Chief Executive's yearly salary (mind you, the LoI don't have a great record with money management either), and the women's team shared training gear and tracksuits with the men's U21s. That's what'll suffer from this, the LoI, grassroots football and the women's game. Well that, and the all the staff the FAI will probably lay off over the coming months.

07 Dec 2019 00:49:01
What’s with the “lol”?

07 Dec 2019 07:58:51
It’s LOI, league of Ireland. Took me a while as well, I was like “this doesn’t seem a laughing matter. ” 😆.

07 Dec 2019 09:29:24
Well said something red, I was on good terms with the chairman of a loi team for a few years and the crap I heard pulled was dreadful. Football in Ireland will never amount to anything the way things are run.

07 Dec 2019 09:53:51
Anyone know if the govt is able to subsidise / bail out an international football association? I know there are rules about govt interference but would a no strings attached payment count as interference. I would have thought having a national football team is important to all parties particularly the fans.

07 Dec 2019 14:07:35
aoe - I know the PRO of my local LoI side who reckons that at least half the teams in the country pay out more in fines (for things like not always having match programmes, picking up a few yellows etc. ) to FAI than they get back in prize money.

Of course there is a problem in that when the LoI had money (relative to now, anyway), half of the teams overextended themselves, just like the FAI have done. I think at least 4 clubs followed more or less this exact pattern between 2005 and 2011: Win league and qualify for Europe. Spend money on players. Fail to retain the league title and/ or progress beyond a single qualifier against a team from Lapland. Go into administration and be reconstituted under new ownership.

It kinda looks like there is no one in a senior role Irish football who knows what they're doing. To say Dundalk are an outlier in their consistency recently is an understatement.

@ g1 - It might theoretically be possible for the Government to give them a bailout or buy their share in the Aviva without getting in trouble with UEFA or FIFA. But in this particular case, for it to be remotely politically viable, the electorate would want the government to have serious oversight on the running of the FAI in return. That would obviously count as interference and is a non-starter.







 

 

 
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