BRIAN KERR HAS described tonight’s statement announcing John Delaney’s departure from his role as chief executive of the FAI as “a whitewash”, adding that the 51-year-old should step away from the organisation completely.
Shortly after Ireland’s Euro 2020 qualification victory against Gibraltar the FAI confirmed that Delaney would be stepping down as CEO in order to move into a new position of Executive Vice-President with immediate effect.
“The statement looks like a bit of a whitewash to me,” Kerr said speaking on Virgin Sport. “As far as most of the football public are concerned here, he’s had his time. He has had 14 years at it. There have been far too many mistakes and misdemeanours.
“He should just leave the stage altogether and get out of it and let somebody else take over the organisation and run it properly now, where there is less messing and less attention on the CEO towards what he does.”
Kerr was appointed as Ireland manager while Delaney was a member of the FAI Board and was dismissed by the 51-year-old Waterford native in 2005. He said that the lack of clarification regarding Delaney’s new role left a growing uncertainty.
“There is not clarity for us on what the position would be. But it still sounds like a very important position that he would have a lot of authority in dealing with far too many matters, really.
"The statement looks like a bit of a whitewash to me.
— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) March 23, 2019
"He's had his time. He's had 14 years at it.
"There's been far too many mistakes.
"He should just leave the stage."
"The decisions made on the stadium have left so much debt."
Brian Kerr on John Delaney, again.#VMSport pic.twitter.com/Lk1jkbgT9D
“There are matters that need to be looked after,” Kerr continued. “The League of Ireland needs proper care and attention and someone having a real interest in it and somebody that wants to put investment into it.
“We’ve had no investment in football in Ireland in the last few years apart from the money from the Sport’s Council.
“The decisions made on the [Aviva Stadium] initially have left the Association with so much debt that there has been no money there to spread among the game and to improve the game, as far as I’m concerned.”
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