Setback for FAI after EGM failure

The FAI will have to call another emergency general meeting after their resolution to expand board to 14 for gender balance purposes but with equal split of football and independents didn’t reach the required 75% to be carried.

After a robust debate over 90 minutes at a virtual EGM that was delayed starting, members of the General Assembly voted 76 for and 38 against in a secret ballot.

The FAI say this EGM was called after the failure of their football pillars to nominate sufficient female candidates to enable it to meet the target set by the government to have a 40% female presence on their board.

Sports Minister Thomas Byrne has threatened sporting bodies who don’t hit the proportion by December 31 with half their annual funding being culled, which the FAI admits would have ‘serious financial and other implications’.

In the email sent to their 145 members last month, the potential drop in core state aid is estimated at €4.3m, compounded by significant cuts in programme, affiliate, league and club funding.

They detailed three board meetings during which consideration was given to extending the deadline for nominations but not acted upon.

All six of the candidates were male - they being Paul Cooke and Joe O’Brien for President, uncontested John Finnegan as Vice-President, the returning Dave Moran from the amateur pillar, Nixon Morton for national bodies and Tom Browne as the rep of the schoolboys/girls sector.

At the nub of this argument was the proportion of independent directors as well as which forum has the authority to adjudicate on proposals to alter the constitution of the FAI.

The FAI rejected a constitutional change lodged by the Irish Universities Football Union (IUFU) with the FAI company secretary’s Gerry