John Delaney has dismissed Deputy Catherine Murphy's call for him and other FAI officials to appear before an Oireachtas committee.
"Of all the major sporting bodies, the FAI is the most secretive," the Social Democrats TD - a member of the Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport - told the Irish Sun in an interview published on Friday.
Speaking on Sunday, as Mick McCarthy was unveiled as the new Ireland manager, Delaney responded.
"I’ve appeared in front of many Dáil committees before explaining what Irish football does," said the FAI CEO.
I’m not really interested in sideshows, people making comments just for the sake of publicity. I’m more interested in how we develop Irish football.
I’d like to be in there talking about more funding for Irish football. We have about €60m worth of major projects we are working on in the League of Ireland.
There is €35m for Dalymount Park, €11m for Glanmire, Drogheda’s new stadium of about €5m, Finn Harps' new stadium for about €4 to €5m and €4 to €5 million for the fourth stand at Shamrock Rovers. These are big projects to improve the League of Ireland and the Association is central to all of those strategies.
I have no problem meeting anybody who wants to develop Irish football and make sure Irish football gets to the next stage. I’m not that interested in meeting people who are looking for what I would call a bit of self-publicity.
Murphy - who was particularly interested in the compensation paid to Martin O'Neill and his backroom staff upon their departure - said that there needs to be more transparency from the FAI. Delaney stated accusations that the Association is lacking in this regard are "completely" unfair.
"I'll give you one example: my own salary is transparent," said Delaney, who is paid €360,000 per year.
"Other sports bodies, for their own reasons, choose not to reveal their CEO's salary. I’m probably one of the very few whose salary does get disclosed.
"When you get to the argument, after people making comments and trying to get a bit of publicity for themselves, when you examine the facts, they don’t stand up."
Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
