THE FAI HAS been given more time to achieve gender balance targets for its board, set by the government as a condition for a bailout in 2020. 

In return for a State bailout, the FAI signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the government. One of its conditions was the reconfiguration of the board. 

The FAI voted in December to meet the State’s gender balance requirements. Delegates voted 95% in favour to change the football body’s rules to add another two female members to their board, and meet the government’s demand for a minimum of 40% representation.

This was acknowledged in a report published today by the Minister for Sport, Catherine Martin. It detailed the progress made by the FAI in the implementation of reforms set out in the MOU, including the requirement for gender balance.  

The report read: “As of 22 December 2023, the FAI Board had eight male (66.6%) and four female (33.3%) members, albeit on 9 December 2023, the FAI’s General Assembly approved an extension of the board to 14 members which enables the FAI to meet the gender balance requirements in early 2024.”

In total, some 163 recommendations were set out between the 2019 Governance Review Group (GRG) Report, the 2019 KOSI audit and the 2020 MOU.

The report says that 159 out of 163 items (98%) are marked as either “complete” or “phase 1 complete”.

The remaining four items “were not delivered within the agreed timelines”. These items, which relate to gender balance and to the full implementation of the GRG and KOSI recommendations, the report says, can be delivered by the FAI, “within a longer timeline”.

The four outstanding items that remain to be implemented are:

• There should be a 33.3% gender balance on the FAI Board within 12 months – which was by June 2020.
• A 33% gender balance should also be reflected at Council, Committee and AGM level within three years – which was by June 2022.
• MOU requirement that the FAI fully implement the 2019 GRG recommendations by the end of 2020.
• MOU requirement that the FAI fully implement all KOSI audit recommendations by the end of 2020.

The KOSI recommendations are not included in today’s tracker report due to the “ongoing investigation being undertaken by the Corporate Enforcement Authority into past matters at the FAI”.

“The FAI has made significant progress in implementing very important and necessary reforms since the Memorandum of Understanding was agreed in 2020,” said Martin.

She added: “It is important that the FAI continues to progress the reforms, including gender balance requirements, to ensure a stronger association for Irish football into the future.”    

Thomas Byrne, the Minister of State for Sport and Physical Education, said his department would discuss with Sport Ireland the possible need for further support for the FAI “beyond the term of the Memorandum of Understanding”.

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