Football Association of Ireland vote in favour of gender-balanced board

FAI board member Niamh O'Mahony and chief executive Jonathan Hill pictured at the FAI's AGM on Saturday

The Football Association of Ireland has approved an extension of its board to ensure it meets the Irish government's gender balance directive.

Sporting bodies which receive funding from the Irish government must have at least 40% gender representation.

In November, a previous proposal to allow two additional female candidates to join the FAI's board failed.

But at an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) in Dublin, delegates voted to expand the board to 14 members from 12.

At the EGM, which preceded the association's annual general meeting on Saturday, 110 delegated voted in favour with six voting against. The two additional FAI board members must be female.

The association risked losing 4.3m euro worth of funding had it not met the Irish government's mandate by the end of 2023.

Outgoing FAI president Gerry McAnaney said: "This vote paves the way for us to increase the size of our board to 14 and ensure that the board will have a minimum of six male and six female directors in future.

"This is a very significant development for the Association and means that we will be in a position to achieve the 40% female director target set out in Government policy and specifically in the MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) as soon as we identify and appoint two additional female directors to the Board in January.

"While our focus in recent weeks has been on the details of the proposals and securing the support of members, it would be easy to lose sight of the significance of this decision and the opportunity it presents to the association to show leadership in the area of equality, diversity and inclusion."