UEFA help FAI with stadium payments

Ganymede Glow

UEFA have stepped in to help the Football Association of Ireland meet its debt repayments for the Aviva Stadium.
The organisation has confirmed that is has advanced a "solidarity payment", understood to amount to several million Euros from its development fund, to the FAI.
Finance director Josef Koller told the Sunday Times: "It is a really difficult situation, because of the economic crisis, and we said 'Okay, we can advance certain solidarity payments'."
The agreement was reached after a meeting between Koller and Danske Bank, the FAI's main creditor, at which chief executive John Delaney was present.
Koller said: "I just said to John Delaney that if you want me to be there and I can assist by explaining it from UEFA's point of view, I will do it.
"Danske felt very comfortable to have somebody from UEFA there, especially the finance director. It was really worthwhile to explain to Danske how important this is for us."
The FAI declined to comment on the report today.

http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/irish/2013/0609/455575-uefa-help-fai-with-stadium-payments/

What do you make of this?

aindriu80

The FAI really needed it. We don't get a full house and they never shifted the tickets like the IRFU.

Mint Sauce

How much of Traps wages are the FAI paying, compared to O'Brien?

Umpalumpa

I wonder how fecked we will be when/if we dont qualify for Brazil.
I stopped going to matches because they are painfull to watch.

Does the FAI get a slice of gate receipts from away games?

Chucky the tree

All the while Delaney still picks up a ridiculous amount of money.

LuckyLloyd

Our competitive attendances are excellent relatively speaking.

padd b1975

Looks like they're totally skint.


How the hell did a similar sized country like Wales manage to build a much bigger and better venue without having to hand out the begging bowl??

Irish soccer a laughing stock once again.

citytillidie

padd b1975 wrote: »

Looks like they're totally skint.


How the hell did a similar sized country like Wales manage to build a much bigger and better venue without having to hand out the begging bowl??

Irish soccer a laughing stock once again.

Because they had the English FA help by renting it for 6 years

Frankie Lee

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Our competitive attendances are excellent relatively speaking.

Quickly dwindling however.

aindriu80

padd b1975 wrote: »

Looks like they're totally skint.


How the hell did a similar sized country like Wales manage to build a much bigger and better venue without having to hand out the begging bowl??

Irish soccer a laughing stock once again.

England paid for that. Nothing funny about Irish soccer.

noodler

Where the fcuk did the money from the 2010 world cup campaign go? There was a couple of million made from the France game alone.

12m or something from the Euros.

Relying on these windfalls as being regular occurances when borrowing/agreeing a repayment schedule is baffling - part of the blame has to go on the bank. What risk analyst decided that a repayment schedule requiring Ireland constantly qualfying for majoir tournaments was realistic?

Seaneh

padd b1975 wrote: »

How the hell did a similar sized country like Wales manage to build a much bigger and better venue without having to hand out the begging bowl??

The millennium stadium wasn't paid for by the welsh FA or the WRFU, they pay rent for their matches.

Rhys Essien

The idiots spents €410 million to build the Aviva stadium,capacity 51,700.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviva_Stadium

Meanwhile,the new Juventus stadium cost only €120 million,capacity 41,000.Less than 3 times the cost with 10,000 seats less.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juventus_Stadium

Can anything be fcukin done right in this country.

Frankie Lee

Eircom Park wouldn't have been such a bad idea now.

Delegate John Delaney of Waterford United, who had briefly left the meeting, again expressed his concern at the project's viability.

"My recommendations are that the FAI have no chance of delivering this project on their own. It's just a non-runner now. The debt is £55-56m, that is the type of borrowing including the land we would have to service. In my view as a Chartered accountant, it's not a runner now."

The Board are due to vote on the future of Eircom Park next Friday.

starviewadams

Aviva was built at the height of the boom in fairness,and was a bit of a complicated job with the expensive houses and the DART line right beside it.

Frankie Lee

Eircom Park wouldn't have been such a bad idea now.

Delegate John Delaney of Waterford United, who had briefly left the meeting, again expressed his concern at the project's viability.

"My recommendations are that the FAI have no chance of delivering this project on their own. It's just a non-runner now. The debt is £55-56m, that is the type of borrowing including the land we would have to service. In my view as a Chartered accountant, it's not a runner now."

The Board are due to vote on the future of Eircom Park next Friday.

Rhys Essien

starviewadams wrote: »

Aviva was built at the height of the boom in fairness,and was a bit of a complicated job with the expensive houses and the DART line right beside it.

All that surely doesnt justify nearly spending half a billion quid.A lot of people got rich out of that job.

Dont forget the government paid for half of it.€200 million would have been enough for the whole lot.

Andersonisgod

aindriu80 wrote: »

England paid for that. Nothing funny about Irish soccer.

Have you missed the Trapattoni era? It's pretty funny.

Fr Tod Umptious

Rhys Essien wrote: »

All that surely doesnt justify nearly spending half a billion quid.A lot of people got rich out of that job.

Dont forget the government paid for half of it.€200 million would have been enough for the whole lot.

You can't compare the cost of building a stadium in D4 to somewhere random like Turin.
Ireland is an expensive place to build, especially in 2006/2007 we all know that.

The FAI were unlucky to a certain extent here, the economy fell as did the team at the same time as they ere selling their premium tickets which made them a very tough sell.

Then again you had people here back in the day saying that 50k was too small

Rhys Essien

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

You can't compare the cost of building a stadium in D4 to somewhere random like Turin.
Ireland is an expensive place to build, especially in 2006/2007 we all know that.

The FAI were unlucky to a certain extent here, the economy fell as did the team at the same time as they ere selling their premium tickets which made them a very tough sell.

Then again you had people here back in the day saying that 50k was too small

But they were only re-building.They didnt have to buy any land.Paying 410million is and was absolutely madness.

NIMAN

Getting back to the UEFA bailout, surely this is only kicking the can down the road (I know, I've been watching too much PrimeTime) and the FAI will have to make plenty more repayments in tough times.

Will UEFA end up owning half the stadium?

Fr Tod Umptious

Rhys Essien wrote: »

But they were only re-building.They didnt have to buy any land.Paying 410million is and was absolutely madness.

But was it madness, considering the cost of building anything in D4 in 2006 ?

As I said you can't just pick a random stadium somewhere and say 'oh look they did ot for x, why can't we'

Richard Hillman

The thing is, when the stadium is paid off it will already be outdated. It is already showing signs of being inadequate for large events of the modern variety. Purchasing food is a no goer and the queues for the toilet are disgraceful, even in the premium section. The sound for concerts is suppose to be very bad too. Thats all before we get to the replacement of the plexiglass outsides which will have turned brown.

NIMAN

I was in it for the FAI Cup Final in November and that plastic roof would only be seen in Ireland.

A roof that doesn't keep the rain off you, even when you are directly underneath it.

LuckyLloyd

Frankie Lee wrote: »

Quickly dwindling however.

?

They are? Seem to be holding up well.

padd b1975

Seaneh wrote: »

The millennium stadium wasn't paid for by the welsh FA or the WRFU, they pay rent for their matches.

Never said it was.

ArmaniJeanss

padd b1975 wrote: »

Never said it was.

If you understood the differences between the Welsh and Irish stadium funding then why did you ask the question?

And why call Irish soccer 'a laughing stock again' when clearly you already know that the FAI was/is forced to fund the ground in a way that almost no other country forces its sports bodies to do.
In most countries the whole lot comes out of government funds at national or local level, because they value sport in a way we clearly don't.

FAI is undeniably a laughing stock, but on this particular issue I think they should be given a pass.

Neil3030

Genuine question - if the FAI go belly up, financially, could this be a lifeline? Could this be an opportunity to jettison Delaney and his cronies and put a decent organisation in charge of the game in Ireland, who could maybe do something on a scale of what the IRFU have done over the past 20 years?

padd b1975

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

If you understood the differences between the Welsh and Irish stadium funding then why did you ask the question?

I asked the question because the Welsh nation have a 74,000 seat stadium with retractable roof without having to beg to UEFA. The Irish nation on the other hand, have a ' too cool for school' 3 sided over-priced eye sore with a much smaller capacity that one of the partners can not afford to pay for.

patmac

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

You can't compare the cost of building a stadium in D4 to somewhere random like Turin.
Ireland is an expensive place to build, especially in 2006/2007 we all know that.

The FAI were stupid to a certain extent here, the economy fell as did the team at the same time as they ere selling their premium tickets which made them a very tough sell.

Then again you had people here back in the day saying that 50k was too small

FYP, expecting people to pay €32000 for 10 year tickets, they got there sums ridiculously wrong, it's funny how they seem to get to get them right when it comes to wages.

ArmaniJeanss

padd b1975 wrote: »

I asked the question because the Welsh nation have a 74,000 seat stadium with retractable roof without having to beg to UEFA. The Irish nation on the other hand, have a ' too cool for school' 3 sided over-priced eye sore with a much smaller capacity that one of the partners can not afford to pay for.

But it appears you knew already that the WFA/WRU didn't have to pay for it - that like most forward thinking countries in Europe it came from government funds whereas in Ireland the 'little timmy needs an operation so dont waste money on silly sports' crew were listened to and led to a situation where the FAI becomes fairly unique worldwide (FA the only other one I can think of) in having to shoulder a massive stadium debt on a smaller less useful stadium.

Its like you asked the question, Seaneh gave a decent answer, and then you retorted that you knew already. It just seemed strange, but no harm, carry on

Fr Tod Umptious

patmac wrote: »

FYP, expecting people to pay €32000 for 10 year tickets, they got there sums ridiculously wrong, it's funny how they seem to get to get them right when it comes to wages.

I am not denying that they were over priced.
But they were also unfortunate

Had they put them on sale in 2004 at that price they would have sold out, plus if you had a team that was qualifying regularly and not managed by Stan at the time they would have also sold better.

Leroy42

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

I am not denying that they were over priced.
But they were also unfortunate

Had they put them on sale in 2004 at that price they would have sold out, plus if you had a team that was qualifying regularly and not managed by Stan at the time they would have also sold better.

You make it sound like the FAI got done with some hard luck with Stan. It was their own decision, so can hardly be used as an excuse

Fr Tod Umptious

Leroy42 wrote: »

You make it sound like the FAI got done with some hard luck with Stan. It was their own decision, so can hardly be used as an excuse

But you cannot ignore the fact that the new stadium was ready at the end of the boom and that the team were doing badly at the time, thus 10 year tickets were a much harder sell, and the FAI had nothing to do with the bubble bursting.

aindriu80

I think the Aviva is ok for what it is. Can't really complain when we never built anything like it before. I'm sure newer and better stadia in the future will cost less but without a history of building we can't expect prices like what they paid for Juve and Bayern stadia.

padd b1975

aindriu80 wrote: »

I think the Aviva is ok for what it is. Can't really complain when we never built anything like it before. I'm sure newer and better stadia in the future will cost less but without a history of building we can't expect prices like what they paid for Juve and Bayern stadia.

These guys managed to build one with minimum fuss, no need to mooch a venue for their games during the redevelopment either...

munchkin_utd

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

But it appears you knew already that the WFA/WRU didn't have to pay for it - that like most forward thinking countries in Europe it came from government funds whereas in Ireland the 'little timmy needs an operation so dont waste money on silly sports' crew were listened to and led to a situation where the FAI becomes fairly unique worldwide (FA the only other one I can think of) in having to shoulder a massive stadium debt on a smaller less useful stadium.

Its like you asked the question, Seaneh gave a decent answer, and then you retorted that you knew already. It just seemed strange, but no harm, carry on

the aviva stadium got 200million of government funds.
200 million.

the millenium stadium cost 121million sterling in 2000 so a lot less, and even with inflation and rip off Ireland into the bargain, it was far cheaper than the aviva

Now, what was that again about the Aviva not being funded by government properly? I think the governemt gave plenty of cash to be honest.

Amirani

padd b1975 wrote: »

These guys managed to build one with minimum fuss, no need to mooch a venue for their games during the redevelopment either...

Completely different sort of organisation in a completely different part of the city. Not really worthy of comparison.

norrie rugger

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

Then again you had people here back in the day saying that 50k was too small

Most people were saying that in relation to the rugby, at the time.

Leroy42

NiallSparky wrote: »

Completely different sort of organisation in a completely different part of the city. Not really worthy of comparison.

So wait a minute. We can't compare Aviva to the Millenium stadium or stadiums in Italy as it doesn't take into account the Irish bubble, and we can't compare it to other Irish stadiums because they are in a different part of the city?

What can you compare it to? Why build it in D4 if it was going to squiw the costs so much.

LiamoSail

Rhys Essien wrote: »

The idiots spents €410 million to build the Aviva stadium,capacity 51,700.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviva_Stadium

Meanwhile,the new Juventus stadium cost only €120 million,capacity 41,000.Less than 3 times the cost with 10,000 seats less.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juventus_Stadium

Can anything be fcukin done right in this country.

Daft argument, unless the cost of raw materials and labour were similar. There was also the expense in accommodating the sun light requirements of local residents in the planning stages

Coillte_Bhoy

padd b1975 wrote: »

These guys managed to build one with minimum fuss, no need to mooch a venue for their games during the redevelopment either...

Thats a ridiculous argument. Two compleely different types of projects and anyway there was no way UEFA would allowed games be played in a stadium that was being redeveloped

Coillte_Bhoy

Neil3030 wrote: »

Genuine question - if the FAI go belly up, financially, could this be a lifeline? Could this be an opportunity to jettison Delaney and his cronies and put a decent organisation in charge of the game in Ireland, who could maybe do something on a scale of what the IRFU have done over the past 20 years?

what do you mean exactly??

Madworld

Terrible news for all the Oirland fans. No more open bars or ties from John Delaney. :cool:

padd b1975

Coillte_Bhoy wrote: »

Thats a ridiculous argument. Two compleely different types of projects and anyway there was no way UEFA would allowed games be played in a stadium that was being redeveloped

Projects look pretty similar to me, two ageing stadia being developed on their current sites.

I would double check that UEFA ruling, I recall Ireland playing games in unfinished grounds, could have been Estonia and Macedonia, open to correction on that though.

Johnny Utah

Rhys Essien wrote: »

But they were only re-building.They didnt have to buy any land.Paying 410million is and was absolutely madness.

Incorrect, redevelopment required the purchase of some very expensive houses and sites in D4, which were then demolished to accomodate the new stadium. Think 10s of millions for this alone.

Then you have the cost of the small end where they had to sort out the issues in relation to light. I think they considered buying the row of houses here, but it probably worked out to be too dear.

Having said that, we have a tendency to grossly overpay for big infrastructure projects in this country, so somebody, somewhere along the line, probably made a killing!

Nevbertheless, I think the Aviva is a decent stadium, somewhat unique with the small stand, and is in an excellent location - close to the city centre, with plenty of pubs, shops and restaurants nearby. It's nice walk to the stadium too on a summer's evening. The idea of going to a greenfield site would have been terrible.

Neil3030 wrote: »

Genuine question - if the FAI go belly up, financially, could this be a lifeline? Could this be an opportunity to jettison Delaney and his cronies and put a decent organisation in charge of the game in Ireland, who could maybe do something on a scale of what the IRFU have done over the past 20 years?

No, won't happen. The game in Ireland is fcuked. Not a chance in hell that domestic soccer will achieve the success as the rugby. The best we can hope for is to have a few decent players in the EPL and that the national team qualifies for a tournament once in a while. Why do people think that if John Delaney goes that the domestic league will simply attract huge success overnight. Won't happen and for comparison look at the leagues in Scotland, Northern Ireland, etc. Domestic football is fcuked in theset type of small countries.

padd b1975 wrote: »

These guys managed to build one with minimum fuss, no need to mooch a venue for their games during the redevelopment either...

Can't compare really. GAA is a national organisation. CP got significant government funding (which you rarely hear about btw). Also, a lot of gate receipts in GAA intercounty matches would go to fund CP redevelopment, while regional stadiums are in a dire state of disrepair. Also, CP is very basic by today's standards and quite obviously looks like a stadium from the 80s.

Iang87

Sure the Fai have been a laughing stock for long enough. May aswell have everyone across europe laughing now at them.

My only worry is what would happen the league of Ireland if the fai went bust then I remember how little they do for the game here and have no sympathy. Maybe if they maybe played some form of decent football people would go, maybe if the right players were picked people would go, maybe if they weren't run by a man so far up his own hoop he's back standing upright people would go.

I have only seen the stadium from the outside and barring limerick reach the fai cup final i have no plans on seeing the inside. I think the price it cost to build is laughable when compared to stadiums around the world and to those saying well D4 is/was expensive in 06/07 shows how crap priorities are. The country is made of green fields that they could have turned into a good ground rather than redeveloping in an expensive area

Dub13

Is it true that after a set timeframe full ownership reverts back to the IRFU...? I heard that a while ago but not sure if its true.

starviewadams

Yep,the lease between IRFU and FAI is for 60 years,once that's over it reverts back to the ownership of the IRFU.

aindriu80

Johnny Utah wrote: »

No, won't happen. The game in Ireland is fcuked. Not a chance in hell that domestic soccer will achieve the success as the rugby. The best we can hope for is to have a few decent players in the EPL and that the national team qualifies for a tournament once in a while. Why do people think that if John Delaney goes that the domestic league will simply attract huge success overnight. Won't happen and for comparison look at the leagues in Scotland, Northern Ireland, etc. Domestic football is fcuked in theset type of small countries.

Soccer is not fully developed and all is not lost for Irish domestic soccer. It's not like we have met a dead end of what we can achieve. Its more a case of could do better.

NIMAN

Iang87 wrote: »

My only worry is what would happen the league of Ireland if the fai went bust then I remember how little they do for the game here and have no sympathy. Maybe if they maybe played some form of decent football people would go, maybe if the right players were picked people would go, maybe if they weren't run by a man so far up his own hoop he's back standing upright people would go.

afaik, its a requirement to have a national league if you want to enter UEFA and FIFA Qualifying and tournaments.

So, no LoI means no Euros or World Cups for Ireland as a national team.