LAST UPDATE | 23 May 2021
GERRY MCANANEY WAS today re-elected for another two-year term as FAI President at a virtual EGM this afternoon.
The incumbent won 60% of the vote against fellow board member David Moran of the Leinster Football Association, with Paul Cooke also retaining his seat as Vice-President in garnering 63% of the vote against the SFAI’s Ursula Scully. The vote was conducted across the full FAI membership present at the meeting.
“I’m absolutely delighted to be returned as president of the association”, said McAnaney at a press conference afterwards. “It is a great honour. It has been a trying couple of years, I have been involved for 15 months as president. It has been a torrid time for everyone but I am absolutely delighted I was elected today. It is a sign of what’s to come in his association: a whole new era of transparency.”
The results of the votes mean Moran and Scully now lose their seats on the board, and are replaced with two independent directors ratified by delegates: Irish football legend Packie Bonner and businessman Gary Twohig.
This meeting confirmed the reconstitution of the FAI board to an even split of six elected football directors and six independent directors: a condition of the State bailout of the football body that triggered a fraught boardroom standoff last year.
Independent Chairperson Roy Barrett publicly hailed this meeting as “historic”, and it was the first held under the Association’s General Assembly structure, in which 141 delegates are divided into three separate chambers – Professional, Amateur, and National Bodies, in which representatives of schoolboys’ and schoolgirls’ football are included - each with an equal vote.
Barrett also took the surprise step of writing to all delegates yesterday evening to warn against bloc voting on behalf of their affiliates.
“I have been made aware of allegations that certain affiliates are insisting that each of their delegates vote in a particular way”, wrote Barrett. “The view of the affiliate appears to be that all of the votes are theirs to be directed and not those of the individual delegates, representing the interests of the members who elected them.
“To be fair, given the proximity of the vote, I could have let this go and ignored the matter. However, I am not going to do that. At a personal level, I find this type of behaviour objectionable and completely at odds with what the vast majority of members want our organisation to look like in the future.
“An organisation where individuals feel pressured by others, simply because they want to exercise their franchise in an election in the manner it was intended to be made, will never fulfil it’s potential. This organisation should have zero tolerance of this behaviour and I certainly will not accept it.”
Asked about the correspondence after the meeting, Barrett said, “in the correspondence I sent to members I didn’t refer to bloc voting, but the underlying premise of the Assembly and the objectives for it was that it was going to be more democratic, more representative of all parts of the game. Each delegate represented an individual member and all I wanted to ensure is each of the delegates exercised that franchise freely in whichever way they wanted to do it.”
Barrett hopes this latest reform furthers the FAI down the path of progress from the wreckage he inherited when he was appointed as independent chairperson 15 months ago.
“We have all the structures there to enable it. Ultimately it will depend on people’s attitudes and behaviours and the culture within the organisation generally. As a board we are committed to ensure there is transparency and people can feel there opinions and their views are listened to. That is how we sought to evolve over the 15 months I have been here. We have a new board now formed and that will be the key objective of that board, to ensure that level of transparency and openness is in everything we do.”
Updated at 18.20 with quotes