The FAI published their final accounts for 2020 on Friday, recording a surplus for the year of €1.6 million as opposed to a deficit for 2019 of €5.1 million.
The turnover includes €8.2 million out of total Covid support of €13.2 million made available by the Government through Sport Ireland to offset losses in income due to the pandemic.
The accounts show bouncing back from the darker days of financial concern caused in the aftermath of John Delaney’s departure as CEO. This is reflected in the rise in Grant funding to €5.8 million, from €1.4 million in 2019. From this, player development funding was increased to €1.2 million in 2020 from a low point of only €234,000 in 2019.
Overall grassroots funding climbed to just shy of €2 million, an increase of €800,000, while another near €900,000 was made available to the SSE Airtricity League and Women’s National League.
Sponsorship was down to €5.8 million from a 2019 figure of €7.6 million with the loss of Three as the principal commercial partner likely to impact that further in 2021. That said the overall value of commercial income, including through centralised rights from UEFA, held firm at €15.2 million down just €400,000 on the previous year.
Match income was obviously hit hard with a drop from €8.1 million to only €264,000 but the hope is that this is a temporary reduction which will be positively rising again in the current financial year.
Net current liabilities have fallen from €69.7m in 2019 to €13.03m in 2020, primarily due to the Association’s bank loan from Bank of Ireland being reclassed from a current liability to a non-current liability in 2020.
That is obviously still there and loan financing from Bank of Ireland, the Irish Government and FIFA during 2020 increasing from €42.9m in 2019 to €62.4m in 2020, paints a realistic picture that the Association is still in a very difficult position but the best way to climb out of trouble is one step at a time and making a surplus has to be seen as a positive in that regard.
Another positive is the fact that full accounts have been made publicly available and can be seen here.
“COVID-19 presented a real financial challenge to the Association in 2020,” said FAI Chair Roy Barrett.
“Thanks to the ongoing and welcome support from Government and Sport Ireland we were able to manage our finances in a positive way in 2020, across all levels of our game.”
“Together with the support provided to us by FIFA and UEFA and the strict and careful management of our variable costs as we came to terms with the impact of the pandemic, we met this financial challenge head-on with our operating costs €5.7m lower in 2020 compared to 2019.”
“We are moving to a better place and can look forward to a brighter financial future.”
“We are also improving our governance and function as an Association. Our new Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Hill is leading the revitalisation of the Association with real enthusiasm and experience since his arrival in November 2020.”
“The recent EGM saw the introduction of a new Board with six independent directors and the inauguration of our General Assembly, the new structure to lead Irish football as a pillar of our recent Governance reforms. We are now populating the committees that will run Irish football, we continue to introduce real reform across the Board and we will shortly present a new strategy for the FAI with a vision to move Irish football forward, something I can assure you the Board is committed to.”
“We are very much in a better place now than a year ago but we are still very much aware of the transformation process we are undertaking and I would like to thank all our stakeholders for the contribution they have made on that journey.”
“As we see a slow return to normality and the Association reset takes proper hold, we look forward to the FAI being in a position to drive a more sustainable financial future, working both with Government and new and existing sponsorship partners.”
“Finally, a word of thanks to all our great staff across the Association for their ongoing work and tireless commitment to Irish football in these most difficult of times.”
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