Following the statement made by the FAI I would like to make the following comments at this time:

• Following this issue over players’ wages last Thursday, I contacted the FAI on Friday March 14th to seek clarification on player contracts. It has been suggested that I should have contacted other clubs or the PFAI for this clarification. I do not accept that this is the correct course of action. A contract is an important legally binding document and I believe that I was correct in contacting our governing body for such clarification. Also, the FAI are responsible for drawing up the contracts. I first spoke to Padraig Smith in the FAI and he was most helpful and courteous to me. However, he was unable to clarify the terms of the player’s contracts. Padraig Smith referred me to Sarah O’Shea in the FAI’s legal department. I was unable to reach her and left a message which was responded to on Tuesday March 18th and she was also at this point unable to clarify for me the correct interpretation of the contract document. She advised that she would speak with Fran Gavin or Michael Hayes in the league offices. I had already, last Friday, attempted to contact the Director of the Eircom League Fran Gavin to seek his advice. I was unable to contact Fran Gavin and left a message for him to return my call. He did not make contact with me until Thursday March 20th after I was forced to defend the club against public attacks by Stephen McGuinness of the PFAI.
• As we stated on Wednesday, instead of speaking to me or any other member of the Dundalk FC Board of Management, Fran Gavin discussed the issue with John Gill. We accept that John Gill made contact with Fran Gavin and do not believe that this required clarification by the FAI. As we expressed in our statement on Wednesday, Mr Gavin spoke to our manager instead of the club directly. Who contacted who first is totally irrelevant. We stand by this statement 100%.
• One week has now passed between my initial inquiries to the FAI and I still have had no official clarification on the matter. In the absence of any official advice from the FAI, the issue was resolved last Friday between myself and John Gill when I decided to pay the players as an act of goodwill. As stated previously, this act of goodwill was thrown into jeopardy by the PFAI when they criticised our club in a national newspaper.
• I am disappointed that the FAI has, instead of concentrating on the main issue of the public attacks on us by the PFAI, have instead made a statement on an irrelevant aspect of our complaints. As a member of the FAI Eircom League we believe we should have received public support from the FAI and that the FAI should have intervened with the PFAI for an explanation as to why they felt it necessary to publically attack our club in the national and local press.
• I would also like to thank the Dundalk supporters who have contacted myself and other club officials with messages of support for our stance in this issue.