SOCCER: The FAI felt compelled to respond to Gareth Farrelly's claims that the Association failed to support the Cork player in his attempts to claim unpaid wages after the club cancelled his contract last October.

Farrelly is taking the Turner’s Cross club, who were in examinership, to court over alleged unpaid wages and claimed court action was his only option because he had no faith in the FAI’s ability to deal with the situation.

"I felt I couldn't trust the FAI to get it right and that's why I had to look at possibly taking legal advice," said Farrelly in The Sunnewspaper.

The player’s outburst left the FAI feeling the need to clarify their stance and therefore issued a statement of their own stating Farrelly’s claims over wages were “unfounded”.

“All players who were due outstanding monies by Cork City FC and followed the club licensing process have received payment in full accordance with the agreements reached between the players, the PFAI and the club,” read today’s FAI statement.

“This outcome was achieved following insistence by the FAI club licensing department that Cork City FC deal with these matters.

In The Suninterview Farrelly added: "They stopped paying me on August 12th right until the end of my contract. I was let go because they had classified me as a non-essential player, I had been sick.

"I wanted to play, I made three attempts to come back and each attempt was declined by the club. The examiner was saying: ‘you're not being paid so you can't come back’.”

The FAI went on to clarify their position. “Gareth Farrelly’s decision to take his dispute over the payment of wages by Cork City FC last season to a national legislative body precluded the Independent Club Licensing Committee from including his case in their decision to award a license to Cork City FC.

“Furthermore, Gareth Farrelly’s claims that the FAI could not have been trusted to represent his interests in a separate case involving the Fifa 3 club rule are equally misplaced. The FAI represented the cases of eight players who were unable to play as a consequence of this rule to Fifa and was successful in all eight cases. Gareth Farrelly was represented by his club’s solicitors and this case was unsuccessful.”