FAI's John Delaney backs 48-team World Cup
FAI boss John Delaney has backed a 48-team World Cup.
The chief executive of the FAI claimed he was behind a previous idea to expand the European Championships from 16 teams to 24 - a move which he said had not affected quality.
"Any opportunity that gets Ireland a greater opportunity to get to a World Cup in theory and principle I would support," he said.
Fifa president Gianni Infantino was behind the controversial proposal to expand the World Cup finals from 32 to 48 teams.
Only 13 European teams qualify and there is speculation that a bigger tournament would have room for another three countries from Europe.
Mr Delaney was also asked about a €5m pay-off arranged with former Fifa boss Sepp Blatter over a Thierry Henry handball which cost the Republic a World Cup place in 2010.
"The committee decided that it would not be discussed in this house," the FAI boss said.
"All that money was properly accounted for and signed off by our auditors."
The FAI is not regulated by the State but it does receive some public funding and a decision was taken in 2015 that questions about the Fifa money may be outside the remit of the Oireachtas.
The heads of the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) and the GAA were questioned on governance issues at the Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport alongside Mr Delaney, including the issue of gender quotas, ticket touting and concussion.
Philip Browne, IRFU chief executive, said the proposal for sports bodies to appoint women to one third of board positions was a concern.
"There is no evidence to suggest that not having women in the IRFU has actually held the women's game back at all," he said.
Paraic Duffy, GAA chief executive, said the organisation did not have responsibility for camogie or ladies football.
And he added: "I think it would be better if it (gender quotas) was not done through enforcement."
Mr Delaney defended the FAI's work in recent years on the women's game and said the "chairperson" of a women's committee in the FAI would be appointed to the board this year.
It is understood that of the 50 places filled by the executive committees and boards of the FAI, IRFU and GAA, only one was filled by a woman.
All the sports executives urged the Government to ban ticket touting.
Mr Duffy also defended the Sky Sports deal insisting it was a "myth" to suggest that the contract was foisted on the organisation by Croke Park.
Elsewhere, Mr Delaney said that the FAI ran 30 to 40 programmes including the midnight soccer league. This was run with the support of local gardaí and aimed to identify children at risk.
The FAI chief claimed that one programme was run in Ballymun, Dublin, and that crime had dropped by 60-70% as a result.
