RTÉ analyst Richie Sadlier believes a credibility issue hangs over the Football Association of Ireland in the aftermath of their stance on FIFA and the announcement of the €5million payment to the association.
The controversial payment made worldwide news in the last week.
On Friday, the FAI issued a lengthy statement in a bid to explain how it came about, but it emerged this morning that Delaney could be called before the Oireachtas to discuss it further.
Sadlier told RTÉ: “’Fair play’, ‘transparency’ and ‘integrity’ are words that John Delaney has used a lot in the last couple of weeks.
“You don't get to talk about fair play if you require a payment of millions of euro to accept a referee's decision in a match as final, long after the whistle.
“You don't get to talk about integrity. Publicly after the game in Paris, he spoke about the need for justice to served for players and particularly the fans.
“Then he went and did this deal in private and told nobody about it. As for discussing transparency, John Delaney discussing transparency now just sounds absurd. There is a €5million payment that we weren't told about.
“We are talking about an association or maybe a CEO whose public comments seem to clash with his private actions. You're not questioning whether there is double-standards. You're looking at absolute proof of rank hypocrisy.
“We have now moved from [him] being someone who can contribute to change being needed in football to someone whose behaviour needs to change.”
“You are talking about a credibility issue, possibly on a personal basis, certainly as an association” - Richie Sadlier
Fellow analyst Ronnie Whelan said that the payment had provided an important boost to the FAI at a time when it was badly needed and questioned the need for total transparency.
Whelan stated: “Do the Irish public have to know about it? If FIFA tell you, 'keep it quiet and I'll give you five million quid'. Now you've got a big dilemma.
“Do I keep this quiet or do I get my association five million quid which they are not going to have. It helps part build our stadium.
“There is no legal basis for [the payment] but is it corruption? This has gone straight into the Irish coffers and been spent.”
Sadlier reiterated that in his opinion it cast a concern over being able to trust the FAI.
He concluded: “You are talking about a credibility issue, possibly on a personal basis, certainly as an association. If they are willing to hide all this, then you have to ask the question what else has been hid?”
