It has been discovered that the Irish Football Association paid in excess of £8,000 to a company run by President David Martin. 
The payment was revealed within the IFA’s audited accounts for 2016. Despite being publicly available, few people take the time to go through such documents.
The payment of £8,830 was made to Tri sport Trophies, of which Mr Martin is a director.
At the time of publication the accounts showed that £7,540 had already been paid, with £1,640 of the bill still outstanding.
It is understood this payment for was league medals and other silverware for senior competitions under the jurisdiction of the IFA.
Despite the substantial payment it is unclear whether there was any competitive tendering process for the lucrative contract awarded to the President’s company.
IFA insiders claim that Mr Martin has had a longstanding arrangement with the association, even making a lucrative profit via supplying silverware for the 125 year anniversary dinner in 2005.
One source told Unionist Voice;
“This may very well have been an open and competitive tendering process, whereby Mr Martin’s company provided the best service and value for money. But I think we need confirmation of that.
He continued “Mr Martin is entitled to operate a commercial business as much as the next man. However if there is preferential treatment being given due to his status as President, then that is entirely inappropriate.”
It is believed that Mr Martin’s company also supply medals and other material to a number of Junior competitions, including the Northern Amateur Football League (NAFL).
There has been questions raised in recent weeks about the financial management of the Amateur League and now some clubs are questioning whether Mr Martin, who is NAFL treasurer, is benefitting from a sweetheart deal from that organisation in relation to providing medals and trophies and thus ensuring a handsome commercial profit for his company.
It is understood that when a club wins a competition they are provided with 16 medals and if they require any more then these must be purchased.
One Division 1C club secretary said “Why don’t they just open the NAFL books. They apparently have over £100,000 in the bank. What is that for?”
They continued “If the treasurer is paying his own company then my goodness that is outrageous. Even worse, if clubs are paying over the odds for extra medals from the treasurer’s private company then that is a disgrace.”
The IFA and NAFL have remained quiet over the past week despite an extraordinary interview given by former IFA CEO Howard Wells in which detailed the poor financial management within the Association upon his arrival.