THE FAI has formally applied for an extension of emergency state funding.
Minister of State for Sport Thomas Byrne confirmed the request had been made as he and Minster Catherine Martin wished Team Ireland well ahead of the Olympic Games.
In return for governance reforms, the Government agreed to restore the suspended Sport Ireland annual grant of €2.9m.
This will provide an additional €2.9m on a yearly basis, as well as an interest-free loan of almost €10m to cover Aviva Stadium payments which was due to be paid back this year.
Minister Byrne – who had queried the lack of an application in March – said: “The FAI has requested an extension to the emergency funding it got in 2020.
“We want to do something for coaching in academies for football. We’ve met some clubs in the League of Ireland as well who have some really innovative proposals and we want to examine them.
“But we have to look at this issue first as it’s existential to the FAI.
“It’s done a very good job in complying with what the government is asking for, they’ve looked for an extension and we’ve got to examine that.
“It’s got a lot of money from Uefa in previous years which was pre-spent so there’s a deficit there but they’re working hard to make sure that deficit is eliminated and the government wants to support that.”
BEHIND THE BEST
The Minister spoke of a transformation in sporting facilities across the country but acknowledged that League of Ireland stadia are one of the ‘gaps’.
He said: “Some other sports were able to get stadiums up and running in previous years.
“But the Government has a role to play, we want to help FAI, and we know FAI applied for quite a number of projects.”
That is through the Large Scale Sports Infrastructure Fund for which yesterday was the deadline with applications said to amount to five times more than the minimum of €120 million set aside for it.
If that means disappointment awaits for the majority of submissions, there was further confirmation that the proposed velodrome and badminton centre on the Sports Campus in Abbotstown will go ahead.
It is being funded through the National Development Plan with a construction timetable expected this summer.
Ireland is the only country to have qualified a track team for the Paris Games without its own velodrome.
Ireland still lags well behind the EU average when it comes to the percentage of government spending allocated to sport.
OLYMPIC PLATFORM
But the Paris Games Chef de Mission Gavin Noble spoke of a dozen medal possibilities, the increase coming on the back of improved investment in high-performance programmes.
There should be a further dividend reaped as the impact of paying more coaches begins to be seen.
And Minister Byrne suggested the Olympics provides the perfect platform for sports which do not ordinarily enjoy a high profile to make their case for greater assistance.
He said: “Our mission is to get success but also to make sure it inspires participation and the figures are going up.
” If a sport for which facilities are an issue does well, it puts pressure on the Government which is only right.”
For Noble, he is bidding to ensure everything is at hand in Paris.
He said: “I hate the thought of an athlete walking into the Olympic Village and seeing a team having something we don’t have which might impact performance.
“There was a little bit of that in Tokyo with Britain. We need to get to the point where our normal is a higher level.”
The OFI’s ‘athlete-first’ approach has seen €100,000 of sponsorship money used for tickets for family members.
In the Republic of Ireland, members of the public have bought 60,000 tickets for events for what is expected to be the last Olympics in Europe until 2040.