Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 16 April 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport

Governance and Funding of Football Association of Ireland: Discussion

Mr. John Treacy:

I will be clear. That is exactly what the governance review that has been set up will be looking at; who will be representative of the new FAI in the future. It will be looking at representation and who will be the appropriate people. Very importantly, it will also consider the appropriate skills. We face this issue this in a lot of sports. Boards are not tracksuits. They are made up of people who know what good corporate governance is. The failing of some sporting organisations is that board members sometimes come up through the ranks and through branches. When they come to Sport Ireland for training they do not have the appropriate skills. As such we are starting all over again with new board members. That is the nature of sport. A lot of board members are drawn from various representative organisations and different branches. That is the limitation of sporting organisations.