'John Delaney Was Never, Ever Alone In All Of This'

From The Indo a scathing piece on the culture of irregularity at the heart of the FAI.

By Ewan MacKenna

When you hear of 20 years of money being put into bank accounts which are being used for personal usages, as opposed to national associations and confederations, that's incredible damage. I don't know of any world body that's been damaged so much, and over a continuous period of time. And what's to come next? That's the other question. It could be anything. Nothing surprises you and it's time for change - John Delaney in advance of the FIFA presidential election, May 2015

There's a story about John Delaney that perhaps, better than any other, sums up the real person and his actual personality. It revolved around nothing more than the football community in this country trying to do right by one of its old stalwarts who'd had it tough.

Dave Langan played 26 times for Ireland. Being the sort that would run through walls may have drawn great praise back in the 1980s, but by the 1990s it saw his body bruised and broken to the point he was registered as disabled. Still harder times followed, as did a fundraiser, which the FAI and Delaney agreed to back. Spirits were so high that a bar tab running into the thousands was spent on drinks during it, but the CEO then refused to foot the bill. Instead his plan was to take the five figures from the money raised for Langan. His sister had to beg.

That was 2008.

Therefore for the last 11 years anyone who wanted to know the character of Delaney easily could have. Instead, though they chose to ignore it for a myriad of reasons, and sold their decency so they could purchase the dream. They never asked why, merely how much.

That created a seriously sizable mob that refused to have him held to any sort of account.

Continue reading @ The Indo.