The FAI has disclosed that the organisation has current net liabilities of more than €55m and auditors Deloitte are unable to guarantee that the governing body can continue as a going concern.

The association has been in discussions with UEFA, as well as their banking partners since the end of 2018 in an effort to provide financial stability within the organisation.

Presenting the 2018 accounts at the FAI headquarters, executive lead Paul Cooke explained how the association came to a severance settlement with former CEO John Delaney, which amounted to €462,000, including a pension payment.

Cooke also stated that the FAI is in a very advanced stage of refinancing the organisation, but that details of that process are currently unavailable.

The accounts for 2016 and 2017 were restated today also, showing some significant adjustments.

In 2016, an original profit of €2.344m was reduced by €2.278m, leaving a surplus of €66,000. In 2017, the profit of €2.8m was adjusted by €5.8m, resulting in a restated loss of €2.9m.

The FAI also revealed that it will remortgage its debt on the Aviva Stadium until 2034.

Bank loans of €28.2m are in technical default as a result of restated 2017 financial statements.

Deloitte's analysis of the accounts was grave, with its report reading: "While the company has received some advanced funding from UEFA during 2019 to enable the company to meet some of its current liabilities there is not sufficient audit evidence that the company will be able to meet its liabilities as they fall due. 

"Therefore we are unable to obtain sufficient audit evidence to support the assumption that the company will continue as a going concern."

.@SamanthaLibreri gauges opinion after another dark day for the FAI pic.twitter.com/TEW84LVi22

— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) December 6, 2019

While FAI vice president Cooke would not go into the details of the refinancing of the organisation, he did reveal that the sale of the association's stake in the Aviva Stadium was not included in the current plans, with a potential sale regarded as somewhere between complex and impossible.

Cooke also confirmed that the current bank debt of the organisation stands at over €29m, which includes the stadium debt.

The FAI engaged in no internal audit practices and no procurement policies existed within the organisation.

The latter failing resulted in "contracts and transactions where business justification was uncertain and sufficient approvals were not obtained".

The main points from the accounts are as follows

  • Net current liabilities of €55,067,472
  • 2018 deficit of €8.9m
  • 2017 accounts restated: €2.8m profit adjusted to a €2.9m loss
  • 2016 accounts restated: €2.344m profit adjusted to a €66,000 profit
  • John Delaney severance package totalled €463,000
  • Potential liability to Delaney had been €3m, but was adjusted down to €2.142m by end of 2018
  • Martin O'Neill, Roy Keane and rest of management team received severance of approximately  €1.9m