Revelations that the FAI was paying John Delaney's €3,000 monthly rent over a prolonged period of time may prompt the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) to expand its review of the association's finances, according to an expert in corporate governance. In his column this morning Ken Early writes: "his time at the top lasted longer than most of us expected or perhaps feared, but nothing lasts forever." While Emmet Malone goes through the 13 questions the FAI still needs to answer, after Delaney was replaced as chief executive of the organisation with immediate effect on Saturday and moved to a newly created role of "executive vice president".
Limerick and Waterford will contest next Sunday's hurling league final. The latter were two point winners over Galway, despite being a man down for the closing stages and outplayed for long periods. Galway lost Joe Canning in injury time as he was stretchered from the field after a heavy hit from Kevin Moran. Limerick's class eventually told against a hard working Dublin in the other semi-final. In the football, Mayo beat Monaghan to book their place in the league final and Kerry did likewise against Roscommon, relegating the Rossies in the process. Dublin confirmed Cavan's relegation with a six point win. In Division Two, Meath's promotion was made sure of with a good win over Fermanagh while Donegal joined them with a dominant win over Kildare. Cork are relegated despite beating Armagh, because Clare's win over Tipperary seen Tipp and the Rebels go down. In Division Three Offaly's win over Sligo saves them from the drop, Carlow instead go down after losing to Laois. Laois are guaranteed promotion and either Westmeath or Louth will join them, depending on the outcome of next Saturday's refixture. Along with that contest the Division Two and Four finals will be played on Saturday while the Division one hurling and football finals will be played on Sunday.
Munster coach Johann van Graan has strongly hinted that he is going to go with the same 15 which saw off Exeter Chiefs when they travel to take on Edinburgh in the Champions Cup quarter-final next weekend. While ahead of Ulster's trip to the Aviva Stadium for the rather formidable-looking challenge awaiting from their Champions Cup quarter-final showdown with Leinster, the last thing Dan McFarland needed was to see Louis Ludik, Darren Cave and Marty Moore all leave the field early in last Saturday evening's expected bonus point defeat of the Southern Kings.
Irish racing's new whip regulations will be highlighted to jockeys ahead of next month's high-profile festival fixtures at Fairyhouse and Punchestown. The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board has said it won't introduce additional welfare steps ahead of big festivals here because it doesn't believe jockeys not pulling up horses that should be pulled up is an issue in Ireland. However new whip regulations which will trigger an automatic stewards enquiry if a jockeys uses a whip nine times or more on a horse are already proving controversial here.
