Refinancing deal will cut debt by €10m, says FAI

The FAI says it has reduced its bank borrowings by €10 million after agreeing a deal to refinance its debt on the Aviva Stadium with Bank of Ireland.

In a statement, the association said details of the latest refinancing would be revealed to delegates at the annual meeting next month, but said its overall bank borrowings would be reduced under its terms from €45 million to €35 million.

It last went through such a process a little over two years ago when US private equity group KKR took its debt over from Danske Bank.

That too was hailed as a huge boost for the organisation, with up to €12.5 million said to have been written off, although the interest rate payable on the remainder of the debt was never made public and there were repeated references at last summer’s annual meeting to the need to get the FAI back into “mainstream banking”.

Benefactor

That, at least, appears to have been achieved now with existing association benefactor Denis O’Brien credited with having provided advice and support during the negotiations by way one of his firms,

Island Capital

Limited.

The association has, meanwhile, also confirmed O'Brien will continue to pay a portion of the Irish management team's wages. The media magnate previously provided about €900,000 towards the €1.3 million received each year by manager Martin O'Neill and his assistant Roy Keane under their initial contract. It is not yet known whether his contribution has increased in line with the pair's salary after they extended their stay to take in the next World Cup campaign.

O'Neill, meanwhile, has said that the decision to limit yesterday's team training session in Versailles was based on feedback from the team's medical staff and a desire to mimic the build up to a big game that most of the players would routinely experience at club level.

Light recovery session

The manager first cancelled the session, then decided to bring the players to the Stade de Montbauron for a light recovery session without announcing it, only to be seen by various reporters at the ground, something that prompted some suspicion and speculation.

The manager insisted, however, there was nothing untoward behind the change of plans and normal training is due to resume this morning in advance of Monday’s opening group game against Sweden.

“We’d a day off today,” he said. “What we decided with the medical staff was that we’d try to stay as close to what the boys would be preparing for, let’s say, club football. With Monday’s game in mind we’ll train a couple of days beforehand.”

Robbie Keane and James McCarthy are both on course to be available for the game at the Stade de France, but Jon Walters remains a significant doubt with his progress set to be assessed again this morning.