Gold-plated toilet seats at the Aviva?
In their haste to get out ahead [and we say ahead, we mean slightly behind] the story about a lump-sum loan to the FAI, in 2009, the FIFA press office made a minor press release error.
By now, every football fan from Santry to Siberia will know that, in an effort to shush Irish talk of legal proceedings over France’s Thierry Henry-inspired World Cup Playoff victory, FIFA offered the FAI a loan with two strings attached.
- The first rule of Loan Club is you don’t talk about Loan Club
- The second rule of Loan Club is you give us the money back in four years if you miss out on World Cup 2014
In his on-air chat with Ray D’Arcy, on Thursday, FAI chief executive John Delaney confirmed that there had indeed been a payment made by FIFA.
The world footballing body tossed out a release that ended up muddying the waters. They stated: ‘We granted FAI a loan of $5 million for the construction of a stadium in Ireland.’
It turns out, that FIFA actually meant €5 million.
Given that the exchange rate – Euro to Dollar – in 2009, at the time of the loan [November] was approximately 0.67 to 1 dollar, it means the FAI got more dosh.
Rather than getting somewhere in the region of €3,350,000, the FAI ended up with the full €5m.
That lines up with the FAI’s statement from last night. Good to have that all cleared up.
We expect this to be the end of the matter, once and for all…
