STATE funding for League of Ireland academies is not imminent – despite its inclusion in the Programme for Government.
On Thursday, core funding of €31.3m for national governing bodies, local sports partnerships and other funded bodies was announced for 2024.
That represents an increase of €1.6m on 2024, as part of a 76 percent increase over the past seven years with Ireland playing catch-up on most European countries when it comes to investing in sport.
One of the sports policies included in the programme for government was to ‘explore new mechanisms for the creation of football academies with the FAI and League of Ireland’.
But, despite the pressing need given the ramifications of players no longer being able to go to Britain until they are 18 as a consequence of Brexit, it seems it is not being viewed as a pressing matter.
Minister for Arts, Media, Communications, Culture & Sport Patrick O’Donovan said: “The Programme for Government is a five-year document, you’ll probably appreciate over the last five weeks I have been preoccupied with other things.
“There’s an awful lot of stuff there for sport, there’s a lot for arts and communications and everything else as well.
“It’s better to ask in a year, or definitely after six months, to see how we are getting on with regard to progress on each of these individual headings, rather than just a month in.”
When it was suggested that people in academies might be dispirited by an apparent lack of urgency O’Donovan – who said he met with the FAI last week – countered: “They shouldn’t be.
“The Programme for Government is a five-year programme, and I don’t think, to be quite honest with it, anybody would expect implementation of the Programme for Government in six weeks.”
Junior Minister Charlie McConalogue – whose Fianna Fáil party proposed to ‘create a Next Generation Fund to support soccer academies’ in its manifesto – added: “That’s something I will be engaging closely with the FAI on.
“Any spending we’re doing, we want it to see it make a significant impact and make a real contribution.
“Obviously it was something that was in my own party’s manifesto and is now in the Programme for Government.
“And it’s something I intend to step up in terms of scoping out how best we can – working with Minister O’Donovan – see that progress and how best we can bring public money to the table that will deliver a real return in terms of enhanced quality and young people coming through the Academy system.”
