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Staff costs and levels spiked since the association’s governance and financial crisis in 2019, mushrooming outlay on headcount to €16m, according to latest available accounts up to the end of last year. This reduction, should it be completed, will return employee numbers to that when the John Delaney-led hierarchy imploded. Collective redundancies of this scale are subject to statutory notice and in the FAI’s notification to the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, seen by the Irish Examiner, they note that this cull will impact on all departments of the organisation’s ‘business and football functions’, rather than a specified target area. The FAI established an eight-person Employee Representative Group (ERG) as part of their consultation process but Siptu, the union representing a proportion of workers at the coalface, refused to engage with the forum. Their plea to have an external pair of eyes and ears and request to view the ‘business transformation plan’ haven’t been so far acceded to. Recently published accounts confirmed the FAI is still carrying €42m of debt, with the extension of their men’s tournament drought preventing a real dent being put into the largesse. Ireland are third in their World Cup qualifying group heading into the final fixtures against Portugal and Hungary on November 13 and 16.
