{"id":650540,"date":"2026-10-10T12:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T12:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/650540\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T12:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T12:10:09","slug":"fai-reveals-inconsistencies-in-garda-vetting-process-for-coaches-and-match-officials-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/650540\/","title":{"rendered":"FAI reveals \u2018inconsistencies\u2019 in Garda vetting process for coaches and match officials \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Football Association of Ireland<\/a> (FAI) has written to its registered clubs and coaches to inform them of \u201cinconsistencies\u201d in the \u201crecording and validation\u201d of Garda<\/a> vetting information.<\/p>\n

Up to 60 coaches in the League of Ireland<\/a> have yet to be approved by the vetting system, a source informed The Irish Times. <\/p>\n

The FAI also issued instructions to clubs this week to not play under-18 players on teams with coaches that have not been Garda vetted.<\/p>\n

The association said in a statement on Friday night that it was \u201cundertaking a comprehensive review of safeguarding compliance records\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing a review by the FAI safeguarding department, inconsistencies were identified in the recording and validation of Garda vetting information on FAI Connect,\u201d the statement said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe association is now undertaking a comprehensive verification and reconciliation of its compliance records.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat does this mean for you [as coaches]? All registrations of coaches, staff and officials of children\u2019s teams or vulnerable persons require Garda vetting, where current compliance cannot be verified.\u201d<\/p>\n

The FAI also said that clubs and individuals remain responsible for ensuring Garda vetting requirements are satisfied \u201cbefore undertaking relevant roles\u201d.<\/p>\n

FAI chief executive David Courell, speaking during an appearance before the Oireachtas sports committee, said the Girls in Green documentary by Mark Tighe<\/a> and Marie Crowe, had \u201cshone a light on an evolving situation across all aspects of Irish society in terms of adult safeguarding\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0FAI tells Uefa gathering about Ireland team\u2019s experiences during Israel gamesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is something to which the association has taken a huge amount of energy and focus,\u201d Courell said. \u201cWe have introduced that new role of head of safeguarding. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are pivoting the organisation from a child welfare and safeguarding focus to an expanded adult and child welfare safeguarding focus.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Fianna F\u00e1il TD P\u00e1draig O\u2019Sullivan asked the FAI delegation last month if all the registered referees and coaches in the country had been Garda vetted, the association\u2019s director of football John Martin said there were 1,400 referees \u201clicensed and Garda vetted\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe list of all the referees was communicated to the relevant leagues around the country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the referee records on FAI Connect are updated on an ongoing, continual basis, whereas their licences are renewed annually.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2013 Additional reporting: Mark Tighe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) has written to its registered clubs and coaches to inform them of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[16335,13446,1346,61,60,2539,43],"class_list":["post-650540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-david-courell","tag-football-association-of-ireland-fai","tag-garda-siochana","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-league-of-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}