Calls for O'Byrne's head as Eircom Park ditched - March 12,
2001
Moves to oust Bernard O'Byrne as FAI chief executive are gathering pace following Friday's unanimous decision by the soccer body's Board of Management and National Council to ditch Eircom Park and row in with the Government's Stadium Ireland project.
O'Byrne was the chief proponent of the Eircom Park plan - and long-term opponents of the project want him to resign because of the £3.5 million spent by the FAI on a project which has come to nothing.
One of those opponents, FAI treasurer Brendan Menton, speaking on Irish radio this morning, said he believed the Eircom Park project should have been abandoned a year ago and that the Government financial package accepted by the FAI on Friday would have been available a year ago.
But Menton stopped short of calling for O'Byrne's resignation.
Others within the FAI though believe that O'Byrne's "no surrender" stance was instrumental in securing such a - supposedly - good deal from the Government.
However, the final bill for the failed Eircom Park project will be higher than the £3.5 million so far spent. The FAI meets this week with IMG, the consultants hired as project managers, and the soccer body is expected to be handed a bill of over £1 million. Menton acknowledged that not al of that bill is in relation to Eircom Park.
Presumably the FAI will now also be at the loss of the £5 million agreed with Eircom for the naming rights of the Arena - though many would argue that the Eircom name has received far more exposure during two years of incessant infighting over the project than it would have done in five years of playing international matches at the now-defunct stadium!