THIS SHOULD HAVE been a showpiece week for the FAI, with Sunday’s Cup final between Bohemians and St Patrick’s Athletic anticipated to be the best-attended domestic game in Irish history.
But instead there has been cause to indulge the writer Declan Lynch’s deathless phrase that “the FAI is the dysfunctional body all other dysfunctional bodies call the galacticos.”
At an FAI EGM last night, delegates voted against a proposal that would achieve a minimum of 40% female representation on the Association’s board, as is being insisted by the government.
The proposal needed a 75% majority to pass, but fell short, getting only 66.67%, which broke down as 76 votes in favour and 38 against.
As one delegate subsequently told The 42, “the FAI has voted to halve its own funding.”
- Clock ticking -
Any sports body failing to comply with the government’s gender balance by the end of the year will have its funding cut by 50%, which in the FAI’s case amounts to €5.3 million. This would be crippling for an organisation mired in €44 million of debt and without a main sponsor.
A statement issued after the meeting by the FAI said the board would take time to consider their next steps, but affirmed their commitment to meeting the quota. The clock is now ticking. Fast.
Last night’s EGM was called because the FAI realised they were destined to miss the gender balance quota without it. Their board is supposed to consist of 12 directors, six of whom are external and independent, and six of whom are elected from the football constituencies around the country.
There are only 11 directors on the board at the moment, four of whom are women. Of those four, three are independent, with one (Niamh O’Mahony) elected from the football constituencies. The FAI need to add one more female director to comply with the government’s rules, but everyone put forward for election to the board at this year’s AGM were male.
In response, the FAI board met and decided to postpone the AGM and, in the meantime, formulate a rule change that would allow them meet the gender balance. That rule change was voted upon at the EGM last night.
The board proposed that it would be extended to 14 directors, with the addition of one elected football director and one independent director, with each different constituency required to propose a female director on an annually rotating basis.
In addition, they proposed creating a second vice-president role, which would be reserved for a female director. This would have guaranteed a female director would be elected from the FAI’s membership, as the president and vice-president are elected by a vote across all members of the FAI’s General Assembly.
Regrettably for the FAI, they didn’t have the votes to get it over the line. Another resolution, aimed at ensuring 40% female representation on the FAI’s General Assembly by 2025, was also defeated by precisely the same margin.
- Amateur opposition -
The primary opposition came from the amateur side of the game, but the reason the vote failed had little to do with gender balance.
Some objected to what they saw as an overreach by the board in putting forward only one motion for a vote.
Prior to the vote, an FAI affiliate body, the Irish Universities Football Union, submitted an alternate rule change to the FAI to attain gender balance: yes, let’s add another two female members to the board, but elect them both from the football constituencies.
This would mean elected football representatives would have a majority in the boardroom: an eight/six split in their favour, rather than an even seven/seven.
Rather than put both motions forward for a vote last night, the FAI Board unanimously decided to bring forward one motion, which would have retained the even split of directors.
The Leinster Football Association (LFA) – part of the amateur football constituency – got wind of the Universities’ alternative submission, and wrote to the FAI board yesterday, telling them that that both motions should be put up for a vote at the EGM or otherwise it shouldn’t go ahead.
Pointing out that they make up 10% of the voting rights, the LFA proposed another EGM to be held on 3 December, at which a vote would be held on installing an eight/six split.
A counterpart to that argument was the fact the FAI board has representatives from all sections of the game and yet unanimously decided to bring forward only one motion. Secondly, how feasible is it for the board to bring forward every potential motion for a vote to members? The GAA, for instance, has a specific committee which decides which motions are brought forward for general vote, but the FAI doesn’t have the same, and so that function is performed by the board.
- Take back football -
Some sections of the game here have hated the even split of football and independent directors from the moment of its inception. It was made mandatory under the terms of the bailout deal agreed between chairperson Roy Barrett and then sports-minister Shane Ross back in 2020. That agreement expires at the end of this year, at which point the FAI is technically free to change the split.
Some figures in amateur football have been fighting to do exactly that, promising that they would “take back football.”
During the meeting, there was also an objection to the proposed female-only VP rule, with one delegate citing the interests of equality in asking why the other VP role was not designated as male-only.
The FAI board must now regroup and figure out a means of attaining the 40% gender balance, as the prospect of losing half their State funding is disastrous.
One option is to bow to pressure from the amateur game and vote on an eight/six split, but the board must also be mindful of political opinion. The last government insisted on an even split to avoid the governance mishaps of the past, so does this one share this view? If so, the FAI are heading for a fraught and potentially ruinous standoff.
Last night’s vote appeared high in this morning’s radio news bulletins and it once again portrays the FAI as the organisation which cannot agree with itself, an impression from which they have spent years trying to escape.
As one delegate who voted in favour of the motions told The 42, “the old FAI is alive and well.”
Some of those who voted against them argue that they are doing so to prevent the mistakes of the past, to never again have the Association dominated by one individual,. They say say an eight/six split would prevent the FAI from being controlled by the CEO and independent directors, but specific examples of how this has been happening or indeed would happen have been thin on the ground.
It was noted at last night’s meeting that the GAA and IRFU passed motions to achieve the 40% gender balance with relative ease, but nothing is ever so straightforward in Irish football.
The divisions between the different constituencies in Irish football remain as deep and entrenched as ever. Where the amateur game voted against the motions, the League of Ireland voted in favour, and now some LOI figures are saying privately that the league may be better served by just breaking away from the rest of the game.
The cost of not meeting the gender balance goes beyond the headline figure, however, as it risks losing a huge amount of political goodwill at the time it’s needed most. Politicians are facing more calls than ever before to properly fund the sport here, and the FAI only this year published their €893 million wish list to upgrade the country’s ramshackle facilities, forecasting the majority of the money to come from the State.
During the vote in last night’s virtual meeting, one delegate accidentally left their microphone on, and so was heard answering a phonecall in which he said, “Am I to vote no against both proposals?”
The FAI still have time to meet the government’s gender balance requirement, but this episode has shone a harsh light on its claims to progress and governance overhaul. It is as rent by politicking as ever.