Minister of Sport Shane Ross has called on the FAI to reconsider their appointment of UEFA’s Noel Mooney to lead the organisation for the next six months.
Speaking ahead of today’s Irish Football Stakeholder Forum in the Mansion House, the Minister said: “I’ve spoken to the FAI. We had a meeting, Mr (Brendan) Griffin and I, with the FAI last week and we asked them to reconsider. I hope that they are reconsidering that at the moment because it would fracture relations further if they did take a step back.
“They’ve taken a step forward in saying (the board) are going to resign. That’s something which we would thoroughly welcome.
I think it would be a step back if they decided to appoint, without any transparent process, a general manager who hasn’t been through a process and is not independent, having been with the FAI in the past.
“We don’t want to see and prefer not to see people from the past. I want to see people who are completely new, fresh and independent of links with the past. Noel Mooney’s appointment does not seem to us to be consistent with the drive for reform with new faces and new independent faces.”
The Minister said that he is “very keen” to see the currently suspended Sport Ireland funding of the FAI restored as soon as possible, but that the appointment of Noel Mooney “does not help matters”.
He added: “That’s a decision which the FAI has certainly provisionally made. Hopefully it’s one they’ll change their mind on.”
Former FAI employee Mooney is due to take up his interim role in Abbotstown on Monday.