NEFL pledge support for John Delaney

The North East Football League has issued a statement through secretary Gerry Gorman supporting FAI former Chief Executive John Delaney.

 
Press Release from North East Football League

With regards to endorsing our support for the former FAI Chief Executive Officer John Delaney. 

The North East Football League would like to pledge our association, and approval of the recent Press Release which was compiled by the four provincial associations, and the junior Committee of the FAI.

The lengthy statement went on to outline the major transformation of the FAI under his 14-year leadership, and the collective appreciation displayed in this manner for those great efforts (way beyond the call of duty in a lot of cases) on all our behalf at grassroots level, coming at a time when a relentless imbalanced negative campaign has been orchestrated by sections of the media, who in some instances quite bizarrely gave a prominent feature to approx. 

Thirty or so misguided individuals who during their attendance at the recent home tie v Georgia tried to disrupt proceedings by throwing Tennis Balls on to the pitch. 

They represented less than .001 pre cent of the overall crowd making a statement that could be described as moronic, and despite the vast majority of fair minded people would formulate views to the contrary, it still received massive disproportionate exposure.

While we are of the belief free speech should always be afforded respect. 

The above matter is a prime example of the modern driven method of glorifying idiocy if those with the means to do so wish to push a one tracked agenda.

Again we endorse all of the matters featured by our colleagues in Football from the Associations of Leinster, Munster, Connaught, Ulster, and the FAI Junior Committee. 

We also make reference to the recent scrutiny heaped upon John by some Government Ministers. 

I would earnestly request they should approach their line of investigation, and couple it with the same degree of observation on the achievements outlined by the press release refereed to with two further items that come to mind that quite simply would not have happened for this Country, but for John’s input. 

The Draws for the European Championship held in Dublin last December in itself the week long festival of events was worth over 20 Million Euros to our economy, not to mention the great goodwill that was generated with a top class hosting. 

We must not forget the Aviva Stadium hosting the Europa League final in 2011. 

A fantastic honour that we dared not even dream of from years past.

While as a Nation we are famous for embracing and displaying our appreciation for our heroes. 

A minority of our citizens can sometimes do the opposite with unsubstantiated means that can be potentially damaging to a person’s credibility. 

In this instance lets show the minority how wrong they are with their views, and unscrupulous methods.

Gerry Gorman

Secretary 

North East Football League