“Niall and I are taking a combined salary that is significantly less than anybody has ever taken,” said Owens.

“It was less than they even offered us. It’s low. You will see them when we produce the financial results. I’d say it was about a quarter of what the previous guy was paid. The two together, about a third of it.”

Owens didn’t mention any names, but former FAI chief executive John Delaney was on a salary of €360,000.

The interim chief executive said that, with the association’s new access to funding, outstanding payments owed to small creditors will be made a priority.

“They are the people I have the most sympathy for,” he said. “When I look at the coaches and the doctors, and the people who are giving us facilities on the ground all around the country, we need to pay them as soon as possible. They are the number-one priority, as our own staff are obviously struggling. It’s very hard to work with people if you haven’t paid them for over a year, and we haven’t, so they are number one on my list.”

Owens also confirmed that the new FAI top brass have met with First Division clubs to hear their objections to the admission of a Shamrock Rovers B team to the second tier for the coming season.

With the association having sought legal advice on the matter, Owens indicated that there will be further developments on the situation today.

“We will be going back to the First Division clubs and we’ll be giving them our view,” he said.

“What I wanted to make sure was the process to allow them in was followed in the right way, to take advice on that and make sure it was the case. That’s one of the things we need to be better at, that all our processes are documented properly and everybody knows how to follow them.

We end up making some mistakes in that and we end up having to deal with all the appeals we do.

“We’ve had Limerick, we’ve had Rovers B and we had the referees this week — so this was a good week for me, we’ve had everyone coming at me from different angles. We’ll get there. I could have done without them, but we’ll deal with them.”

Meanwhile, alongside confirmation yesterday that a new sponsorship deal has been agreed between the FAI and Bank of Ireland, the latter’s chief executive of corporate banking, Tom Hayes, welcomed the successful conclusion of negotiations on the association’s refinancing.

”This is a good day for Irish football,” he said. “I think that all the stakeholders have worked really well together over the last couple of weeks in a really difficult situation.

From our perspective, this very much draws a line under matters. There is still a lot to do, but the future for Irish football is really bright.

“The financial situation was extremely challenging and what has been really important is making sure that all stakeholders played a part in placing it on a sustainable footing. Irish football is too important from the country’s perspective for the plug to be pulled here.

“We are committed to supporting Irish football going forward, we are there for the long term.”