Roy Barrett has called for a fairer distribution of the betting levy, which should take into account the money raised by the Government from football gambling.
The outgoing FAI chairperson asserted that €1.5billion has been distributed to date and is used solely to finance the racing industry, and Barrett believes that the football fraternity should receive a substantial share based on the sports’ contribution.
Speaking at a media conference on Friday, Barrett, who is set to depart the organisation following a three-year stewardship, emphasised the disparity of funding between football clubs compared to their Gaelic games and rugby equivalents.
However, he was far more scathing in his assessment of the betting levy distribution, suggesting that horse racing and greyhound racing are not growing and perhaps even in decline.
"Whatever about Gaelic or rugby, let’s look at other sports and how they’re treated; horse racing and greyhound racing, so what’s happened there?" pondered Barrett.
"Since 2001, all of the proceeds from the betting levy have gone, in proportion, 80:20, by legislation, to horse racing and greyhound racing. That’s just over €1.5bn that’s going to those two sports.
"Where have they spent the money? Over 60% of that is in prize money, for a sport which is, let’s just say, isn’t growing and some could argue is in decline.
"Then, if there’s €1.5bn of betting levies being raised, well what are they raised on? They are raised on betting and what are the sports that are bet on most?
"You take the UK gambling commission; they did a survey on bets from 2017 to 2020 and 60% of bets are on football. Now maybe you can argue there’s a local difference in Ireland and say 40% are on football.
"Why should 40% of the bets and levies that are applied to that go exclusively to horse racing and greyhound racing?
"I just cannot get my head around that.
"In simple terms, do I think football, given all of the benefits that it accrues from it, from grassroots and other perspectives, should receive equal funding as greyhound racing and horse racing? Yes I do.
"Do I think the betting tax levy going exclusively to those two sports is right? No, I don’t.
"And do I think sport in general, and football in particular, should in time benefit from those levies, and would that be a better thing societally, from a health perspective and community perspective? Unambiguously.
"If Covid has taught us anything, it’s the health benefits and community benefits of sport are massive. Government needs to invest in sport. Here’s one way of doing it."
In a cash-strapped organisation, the fact that the men's senior side remain without a main sponsor is not, however, a major concern for Barrett, as he believes that it is something that needs to be in line with what the association is currently building throughout the organisation.
"There is good progress being made in that generally. I look at sponsorship as a whole, not just shirt sponsorship of the teams. We’ll be announcing a new kit deal for the organisation which is very financially attractive and otherwise.
"I’ve no doubt that we will get sponsors and the volume we’ll benefit from over the next 12 months will be significant.
"For me, it’s never been a big issue. There are lots of other sources of revenue and things that we can compensate for whatever period we’re without a sponsor.
"It’s not as if we haven’t had opportunities or options. Some of them weren’t acceptable.
"The performance of the men's team, whatever people want to debate about Stephen (Kenny), the reality is that there is increasing support for what they are trying to do.
"The profile of the team, I look at that and measure that by people attending the matches, season tickets, we've sold 23,000 of them, a record, could have sold more, lots of families and young people want to come to the games.
"So people are voting with their feet and going into the stadium and not out of it and that's not happened for quite some time. That's just reflective of growing enthusiasm of what they see to be a good bunch of young players who are truly representative of the country, the international team sets the tone, whether we agree with anyone's tactics or what they are doing, the reality is that there's more support for the team."
Barrett believes that Kenny is currently the right man for the job and while he said that he would like to see the current manager stay on beyond 2024, he acknowledged that he would not be part of the decision-making process beyond the ongoing contract, although he would be in favour of allowing the manager to remain for the potential play-offs should they fail to secure a top-two finish in the group.
"If you step back from the emotion of it, we’ve provided Stephen Kenny with a contract until the end of Euro 2024. So that hopefully will be complete with us in the finals. In terms of qualifying for it, it doesn’t complete until worst case scenario, the play-offs.
"It won't be my decision. The reality is, we are playing the World Cup finalists, we are playing World Cup quarter-finalists and Greece, that's a massive challenge, we all hope for a good outcome and that the team plays well.
"It shouldn't be that it's just about whether we qualify or not, given the opposition that we have, it doesn't make a huge amount of sense to me."
And while Barrett is fully supportive of the manager, he was asked whether he had full confidence in his fellow board members, considering his beliefs that boards and organisations should regenerate themselves, adding that "new blood, new thoughts, new faces with new ideas is a good thing".
"Yes, I do," said Barrett. "As I said and as I will again acknowledge that what people don't see is the massive effort that each of those directors who are current - and also the other three who have been there since my time - who have put in a massive, massive effort.
"It is not that everyone agrees with each other all the time, it is not that we do not have very strong arguments with each other. That is what boards do and what they should do, but you can always quibble about the small stuff.
"Substantively, I can only say good things about the amount of time and effort and passion that each of the board members, be it football or independent directors, have provided to the board over the last three years since I have been there. And hats off to them is my opinion."
