The Mystery of the Disappearing Genesis Report

The Story of STIG’s attempts to get a copy of the first Genesis Report

By John Craddock, September 2007

Before the start of this season I was writing an article for STIG and needed to check something from the first Genesis Report. I don’t have a copy of the report so I made a freedom of information request to the Dept. of Sport which I sent off at the start of February, in plenty of time to be ready for our first home game. Two weeks later the Dept. got back to me to say that the FOI request was unnecessary as the report is freely available from the FAI. The Dept. forwarded on my request.

I hadn’t heard anything from the FAI two weeks later. It was the start of March and my print deadline was approaching so I sent an email to the person in Merrion Square who was dealing with my request. I heard nothing from her so I decided to get back in touch with the Dept. In our previous correspondence, the Dept. hadn’t answered my FOI request directly so I sent the following email:

“I’ve not heard anything back from the FAI about this. Do you mind if I repeat my earlier question, would it be available from you if I made an FOI request?
Thanks again,
John Craddock”

to which the Dept. replied:

“John
I have just spoken to [FAI employee] who informed me that she thought it had been sent to you. She will follow it up for you now.
Regards”

This was a bit odd as the FAI didn’t have my address at the time so couldn’t have sent me the report. I waited a week for the FAI to follow up with me and, having heard nothing, I wrote to them to ask if there was any progress. I received the reply;

“Hi John,
Yes I had replied to you to say that I was just waiting for some clean copies to come in from the stores, they should have been here yesterday, I will give you a call as soon as one arrives.”

I thought this a little odd as the FAI employee doesn’t have my phone number but I gave her my address so as she could send me out the report. This was on 12th March.

Having heard nothing for a month I emailed the FAI again on 17th April. After another month I had received no response so I emailed the Dept. of Sport on 10th May;

“I never received that report from the FAI and they have not answered the last few e-mails I’ve sent them about it. Do you mind if I repeat my earlier question, would the report be available from your department under a freedom of information request (or by any other method)? I would appreciate if you could answer this question directly as I have gotten the impression that the FAI is avoiding sending me out the report.
Thanks and sorry for having to trouble you again,
John Craddock”

I received the response the following day;

John,
I have just spoken to [the same FAI employee] in the FAI and she has informed me that the Genesis Report was sent out to you. She is to email you to check if the address she used was correct. I have checked with our Sports Unit and as it’s an FAI Report it would not be available from this Department under Freedom of Information. However it should be available from the FAI. It would appear it got lost in the post. If you wish to contact the FAI by telephone their number is 01 XXXXXXX.

That was five months ago and I have not yet heard back from the FAI about this. The only conclusion I can draw from this is that the FAI wants to give the impression that the Genesis Report is a publicly available document but at the same time, they don’t seem to want to hand out copies. Every request I made for the document was ignored and whenever the Dept. of Sport made the request on my behalf an excuse was given as to why I hadn’t received it.

If this document is forming the basis of the development and governance of the game I would expect it to be available to any member of the ’family of football’. Firstly because it’s an important document in its own right and secondly because keeping it confidential gives the impression that something is being hidden, particularly when the FAI is going to some trouble to hide the fact that it is being kept confidential.

I have to stay open to the possibility that this is all one big misunderstanding resulting from ten or so separate pieces of communication between me and the FAI falling into a big black hole but that seems unlikely. I have never had problems with my email and I have been living at the same address all my life without having any problems with my post.

Finally, I’m still looking for a copy of the report, despite having missed my deadline by about 7 months and counting. If anyone has a copy feel free to let one of us know.

This article originally appeared in print in STIG Volume VII, Issue VII