Raymond Kennedy has revealed grievance cases taken by former chief executive Howard Wells may have led to his sacking last month.

In an apparent slip of the tongue, Kennedy has let the cat out of the bag after refusing to disclose the details of the dismissal publicly.

“Howard Wells will get the reasons why he was sacked but I can’t talk about that for legal reasons,” said Kennedy, on BBC NI’s Season Ticket programme.

But when asked again, Kennedy added: “The grievance case may have led to the dismissal.

“It wasn’t personality or policy problem. And it was absolutely not to do with him being English.”

The decision to jettison Wells was not ratified by the Executive Board until three days after he was sacked by Kennedy and vice President David Martin. But why?

“I don’t think you can get a group of people together and make a decision without it getting out into the public domain,” added Kennedy.

As for Wells, he remains tight-lipped on the details of his sacking but he has yet to be given a reason for his dismissal.

“I had a hand delivered letter given to me by the President and the vice President — I just took it on the chin.

“I was disappointed because I think there is still a big job to be done at the IFA.

“But the grievance cases were never an exit strategy.”

The IFA were forced to investigate Wells’ private business affairs during his three and a half year tenure and this is also rumoured to have played a role in his exit.

Kennedy added: “It was something, perhaps, we were not too happy about but we overcome all that and we got to where we were.”

As for Wells’ decision to hire an executive to broker the £10m SKY Sports TV deal and the criticism that followed it, Kennedy states: “It probably wasn’t just as open and as transparent as it should have been but under the present set-up I wouldn’t want to say too much about it.”

Wells, however, insists he made the correct call on that occasion..

He said: “Chief Executives are employed to know the market, to take calculated risks.

“It was a judgement call on my part and I think it will prove to be a good decision.”