Live

Highlights on Off The Ball

10:00 AM-01:00 PM

Highlights on Off The Ball
Advertisement
Soccer

"We will not bail out anybody" | Shane Ross on 'constructive' UEFA meeting on FAI

Minister for Sport Shane Ross has again ruled out a government bailout of the FAI. He was speakin...



Soccer

"We will not bail out anybody" | Shane Ross on 'constructive' UEFA meeting on FAI

Minister for Sport Shane Ross has again ruled out a government bailout of the FAI.

He was speaking following a meeting with a UEFA delegation at Leinster House about the future of the association, which UEFA General Secretary Theodore Theodoridis has described as "constructive".

After the meeting, the outgoing minister said the government want to restore funding to grassroots football but insisted there won't be a government bailout to the cash-strapped association:

"What we’ve said quite specifically is we’re anxious to restore the funding, which we had taken away from them, in order to benefit grassroots soccer.

"We have absolutely maintained rigidly that we’re not going to bail out anybody. That is not on the cards. What we are going to do is to ensure the future for the volunteers, the young people.

"We anticipate that within days we’ll have another meeting, possibly with members of UEFA and, finally, if we do get substantial progress we’ll hopefully have another meeting with all of the stakeholders together."

“I’m not going into details of exactly what they said as it’s very delicate at the moment but you can take it that everybody is united in ensuring there will be a solution that is shared," Minister Ross added.

“I don’t think a solution is a long way away. I think we’re talking about a very intensive time of negotiations and talks between the four parties in the next few days. I don’t think we’re talking about months or weeks, I think we’re talking about something happening fairly soon and getting a good result in the near future.”

Meetings are now played tomorrow with the FAI's main creditor Bank of Ireland, with the financial institution holding €29m of the Irish football's governing body's almost €70m debt.

 

Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!

Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.