Niall Quinn has repeated his accusation that the "old FAI are alive and well" and criticised the organisation's running of the League of Ireland.

The former Ireland international was speaking at Off The Ball's Virgin Media Sport Roadshow in Dundalk and bemoaned the slow change at the embattled FAI.

"They'll argue that they are changing and I get that there is a shift for change, but the old FAI are alive and well," the 92-cap international said.

Quinn, who along with Kieran Foley was involved with a group presenting a new vision for football in Ireland, revealed that he had briefly spoken to FAI President Donal Conway in September at Dundalk's FAI Cup semi-final where Conway had warned that change would take time.

However, Quinn said that change was only slow "because the governance review group allowed this thing [the FAI] to crawl back into existence" by not recommending more changes at board level.

"I think it's not going to change a whole heap. I wish the people coming in well, but it's not going to be simple. The opportunity to move fast is gone."

One aspect of Irish football deserving of optimism, Quinn said, is the change around the League of Ireland where the clubs are beginning to consider governance options independent of the FAI.

"It's freed itself from the shackles of the old FAI regime," Quinn noted.

"The clubs have come together and they have formed a union and they are looking at alternatives outside of the way they have been treated."

"To pay [nearly] €20,000 for a licence in the top flight and then the winners get €100,000 — I mean, that was a racket.

"When you think about it no other teams in Europe are paying licence fees.

"To have live games on TV and the clubs get no money and then being told you're lucky to be on TV. Well actually, for shamrock Rovers it was taking 1,000 people off the gate — there's no luck there."

While admitting he was unsure what road the clubs would go down, Quinn said it was clear they were "beginning to see the light" and with new investment arriving, the future finally appeared bright.

"It's great to see the investment in Dundalk, and it's great for the game in general that Dermot Desmond will invest in Shamrock Rovers and that looks like it will get voted through.

"The FAI won't be controlling it the way they used to — I think that's the way this is going to end up," Quinn added.

"To be free to bring in your own commercial revenues, to provide community support programmes, to lobby government as the elite part of the industry and not be stuck in the unfortunate time when the League of Ireland was treated so badly by the FAI."

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