A SPORT IRELAND audit found that the term of the State bailout that capped the remuneration of the CEO of the Football Association of Ireland was “not embedded” at the football body in neither 2021 nor 2022.
State funding to the FAI was suspended earlier this year when an audit conducted by KOSI and sanctioned by Sport Ireland found that CEO Jonathan Hill was approximately €20,000 above its permitted threshold last year. When the FAI signed up to a State bailout in 2020, it was agreed that the CEO’s remuneration must not exceed that of the secretary-general of a government department.
The FAI acknowledge they “unintentionally did not comply in full” with this agreement and have since addressed the problems to Sport Ireland’s satisfaction. Hill has paid the money back and State funding to the FAI was resumed on 1 December.
The FAI will appear before the Oireachtas Sport Committee tomorrow: they intend to talk about their Infrastructure Plan, but some of the meeting will focus on the controversy over Hill’s remuneration.
The full details of the KOSI audit are summarised in a document submitted to the Oireachtas Sport Committee ahead of tomorrow’s meeting, and the document has been reviewed by The 42.
The summary document reveals that Sport Ireland concluded that the pay agreement regarding Hill’s remuneration was not embedded within the FAI in 2021 nor in 2022. The issues relating to the latter year led to the suspension of State funding.
Following two separate pay increases across 2022, the audit states the maximum gross salary of a secretary-general was €232,820.75, excluding employer pension contribution.
The FAI’s most recent set of accounts reported that Hill’s total remuneration in 2022 was €282,812. This figure includes an annual “pension and benefits allowance” paid by the FAI, which is based on a percentage of Hill’s annual salary. The size of this percentage is not disclosed in the summary document.
Sport Ireland/KOSI found that Hill was above the permitted threshold when his annual salary was supplemented by this pension and benefits allowance, along with benefit-in-kind which accrued in 2022, a salary increase granted in the final quarter of 2022, and a payment made in lieu of untaken holiday days.
The salary increase was backdated, and it and the cash in lieu of holiday days not taken were paid to Hill in the first quarter of this year.
The FAI argued that Hill remained within the agreed salary benchmark as they had factored in a secretary general’s undisclosed pension contribution into the figure they were not allowed to exceed. The FAI came up with their figure based on pensions advice, with the FAI estimating a secretary general’s pension allowance to be 39% of their annual salary.
The FAI acknowledged an error made in calculating benefit in kind.
The FAI also defended the granting of money in lieu of holiday days not taken, despite the fact it is not permitted by their own employee handbook. They argued that it was made in exceptional circumstances, as knock-on effects of the Covid pandemic and demands on Hill’s attendance meant he couldn’t take his holidays. It was not intended as a full-time benefit to Hill as it would not arise again.
The process behind this element of the story is likely to dominate proceedings at tomorrow’s Oireachtas Committee. Former chairman Roy Barrett told FAI AGM delegates on Saturday that he granted this payment in lieu of holiday days, and did not inform the entire board of the problems it caused until last month, partly out of a fear the details would leak to the media.
The FAI also state that Hill’s salary rise was not because of the bump in pay granted to secretary generals in 2022: they say it was granted by the FAI board at the start of this year, and backdated to the final quarter of 2022. If they had been increasing Hill’s salary in line with the benchmark, they argue, they would have backdated it earlier, to June, when secretaries-general had their pay bumped.
The audit also states the FAI failed to fulfil a request made in 2022 that they provide more resources to their finance department. In June 2022, KOSI/Sport Ireland recommended they hire for a a senior finance position on an 18-month contract, to assist the finance director.
KOSI/Sport Ireland say that filling this position for the FAI should be a “priority.” The FAI hired a new finance director, Dan McCormack, in the final quarter of 2022, and say he recruited a senior accountant in October 2023, to provide additional support.
The FAI will point out tomorrow that 95% of the reforms and terms of the State bailout have been implemented at the football body.
They will also talk the committee through their facility and infrastructure plan, which states why the FAI need a total investment of €863 million over the next 15 years to improve football’s facilities across the country. In a briefing document sent to committee members, the FAI say football has been under-invested in for the past 25 years. They point out that football has received only 19% of the total funding made available under the sports capital grants since 2000.
CEO Jonathan Hill, former chairman Roy Barrett, and board members Packie Bonner, Niamh O’Mahony, Catherine Guy, and Liz Joyce are expected to appear before the Committee tomorrow. Sport Ireland will also be in attendance. It kicks off at 1.30pm.