What did FAI chief executive have to say about the current malaise? We may never know.
The FAI communications team is carrying the can for the decision to shred 18,000 copies of the match programme for Ireland’s Euro 2016 Qualifier with Scotland.
The programme included, according to an Irish Daily Mail report, a feature interview with Delaney on the recent FIFA corruption arrests and the resignation of the footballing body’s president, Sepp Blatter.
That interview, in its original form, will never see the light of day. A further 18,000 programmes were then printed, at an estimated cost of €10,000.
This tweet, from Neil O’Riordan of The Irish Sun, highlights a particularly sensitive passage from the original interview:
Worth 10k of the FAI's money to remove these words? pic.twitter.com/aTp8hNTqYA
— Neil O'Riordan (@noriordan) June 13, 2015
An FAI statement to the newspaper reads: ‘John Delaney was entirely unaware of this change to the programme. He had already signed off on it and it was approved for printing.
‘The decision to delete his comments where they related to FIFA was an editorial one that was taken by the communications team.’
Deciding to destroy the original match programmes is a somewhat odd move, given that Delaney appeared on the national airwaves to castigate Blatter and FIFA.
On Thursday, June 4, Delaney spoke about how Blatter had told him he approved of his girlfriend, Emma English, and had offered a loan to the FAI so they would not proceed with legal action following on from the Thierry Henry handball incident [France versus Ireland, World Cup Qualifier] in 2009.
A plane is reportedly planning to fly over the Aviva Stadium, today, displaying a banner calling for Delaney’s resignation.
Here is the newly printed programme, courtesy of Cillian O’Conchuir:
https://twitter.com/killeroc/status/609710162811686912
