{"id":895577,"date":"2026-09-14T15:52:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T15:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/895577\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T15:52:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T15:52:18","slug":"unexplained-fai-loan-to-limerick-soccer-written-off-as-legal-row-brews-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/895577\/","title":{"rendered":"Unexplained FAI loan to Limerick soccer written off as legal row brews \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The FAI<\/a> has written off a loan of almost \u20ac71,000 that was given to the Limerick and District League (LDL) in 2013 when John Delaney<\/a> was chief executive of football\u2019s governing body in the Republic. <\/p>\n

The FAI finance department contacted the LDL in January 2024 seeking an update on an outstanding loan of \u20ac70,739.20. <\/p>\n

However, in May 2024, following a \u201cdetailed internal review\u201d, the association informed the Limerick committee that repayment of the \u201clong-standing balance\u201d was not being sought due to inadequate records. <\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the year-end process for the 2023 financial accounts, the FAI carried out an extensive review of aged debtors,\u201d said an FAI spokesperson.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was wide-ranging but did include a long-standing balance relating to the Limerick [and] District League. The overall process resulted in a write down of legacy balances that did not have adequate records to justify their retention on our accounts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The association stated in correspondence with former and current LDL committee members that Sport Ireland \u201cconsiders the matter closed\u201d. but the reason for the loan being provided in the first place, and how it was spent, remain unclear. <\/p>\n

The FAI has uncovered a number of outstanding and unexplained historical loans, The Irish Times understands. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe association also engaged with Sport Ireland<\/a> in relation to the matter, who considered the FAI\u2019s approach to be appropriate,\u201d the FAI spokesperson continued. \u201cThe loan no longer exists in the association\u2019s accounts, there is no liability and that position was clearly communicated with those involved in May 2024 and has been reiterated on multiple occasions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The loan is one of the issues raised by Belfast-based solicitor Kevin Winters from KRW Law, who is representing five of the 11 members of the LDL committee who were stood down by the FAI in June 2025. They were stood down after FAI president Paul Cooke highlighted \u201callegations of derogatory behaviour and inappropriate conduct from people involved at committee level\u201d.<\/p>\n

After Sport Ireland chief executive \u00dana May expressed concern to the FAI about the governance of Limerick football, Minister for Sport Patrick O\u2019Donovan<\/a> said he would consider restricting State funding over the handling of complaints relating to bullying and harassment. <\/p>\n

Several individual volunteers within Limerick football made complaints through the FAI-recommended Raise A Concern service before consultancy company RSM took up the investigation last year.<\/p>\n

RSM concluded their investigation in December without any sanctions being recommended after complainants did not agree to reveal their identities or share transcripts of their statements with LDL committee members.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe FAI does not accept that committee members were entitled to the identities of complainants,\u201d said the FAI this month in a letter to KRW Law. \u201cThe concerns were raised through the confidential reporting mechanism, Raise A Concern, and subsequently through RSM.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn that context, complainants requested that their identities not be disclosed and RSM were entitled to accede to those requests.\u201d<\/p>\n

Concerns have been raised to The Irish Times about how the process played out from two people who made complaints to Raise A Concern and subsequently RSM.<\/p>\n

Current and former members of the LDL committee, represented by Winters, have also been critical of the FAI\u2019s role in the process. <\/p>\n

In July, Christy O\u2019Dwyer was re-elected chairperson of the LDL and Turlough McNamara returned as secretary. O\u2019Dwyer and the former LDL chair Ger Smyth are represented by KRW Law, along with Mike O\u2019Regan, Joe Pond and Karen O\u2019Callaghan.<\/p>\n

On August 19th, KRW Law wrote to FAI chief executive David Courell seeking clarification of each complaint towards individual members of the LDL committee, a retraction of suggestions of wrongdoings by his clients, a written apology from the FAI and confirmation \u201cof whether the FAI intends to reopen, review, or correct the flawed investigative process\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur clients remain deeply concerned that the FAI has never identified any regulatory, constitutional, or disciplinary basis for the decision to stand down the entire committee in June 2025,\u201d said Winters in his letter to Courell.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe FAI\u2019s refusal to clarify this position has left each of our clients in a position where their reputations have been irreparably damaged throughout the Limerick football community.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThe process adopted by the FAI was fundamentally flawed.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a response to KRW Law on September 1st, the FAI made a robust defence of their position, stating: \u201cAfter careful consideration, the FAI closed the review because the material was not available in a form capable of being put to respondents in a manner consistent with fair procedure.<\/p>\n

\u201cFar from constituting a breach of due process, the closure of the review reflected the FAI\u2019s position that fair procedures could not be compromised. Accordingly, the FAI does not accept that your clients were denied natural justice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The FAI has written off a loan of almost \u20ac71,000 that was given to the Limerick and District…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":895578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,274300,561,82],"class_list":["post-895577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-football-association-of-ireland-fai","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=895577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/895578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=895577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=895577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=895577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}