Soccer

FAI expects Government clarity on €10m annual funding for club academy by December

FAI’s Marc Canham says money ‘would absolutely transform player development and academies in this country’

FAI chief football officer Marc Canham. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho
Gavin Cummiskey
Wed Sept 25 2024 - 17:30

The Football Association of Ireland expects clarity from the Government by December on their request for €10 million annually to help fund the club academy system.

Marc Canham, the association’s chief football officer, intends to create a three-tier structure across 24 academies by 2026. The exact details have yet to be relayed to League of Ireland clubs.

During a briefing at the Aviva Stadium on Wednesday afternoon, Canham conceded that this key element of his Football Pathways Plan cannot be fully implemented without Government support.

“From our conversations with Government on that specific item, we’ll have a good understanding of where we are by the end of the year,” he said.

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“On League of Ireland academies, there are different ways you can look at it. We believe around €10 million per annum would absolutely transform player development and academies in this country.

“Will we get all of that? Not sure. But we presented different ways you can do that.

“We think around €10 million would help us catch up [with similar sized European countries]. Lesser money would mean that we might not go at the rate we want to go.

“The academy proposal is a multimillion euro investment that we do need, and the Government is the primary source to be able to implement it.”

However, 10 days after the FAI interim chief executive David Courell indicated that academy funding would come from three strands – the Brexit Adjustment Fund, an increase in the betting levy, and profits from hosting Euro 2028 – Canham was forced to rule out the main option.

“We are happy to accept we may have missed an opportunity there as an Association on that specific [Brexit] fund,” he said.

The European Union put €1.1 billion into the Brexit Adjustment Fund in 2021, but the FAI only sought access to it earlier this year.

An increase in the betting levy from two to three per cent would create €50 million for Irish sport, with football seeking €30 million. But this remains at discussion level across several Government departments, including Sport and Finance.

The FAI previously spoke about the €10 million, on top of the €5.8 million grant it currently receives, as a short-term method of funding to help kick-start a football industry in Ireland.

Now, Canham is seeking that sum on an annual basis “forever”.

“We might have to be cognisant that the Government might not be the sole funders of that, whatever the figure is forever.

“We have to make sure that Irish football – the Association and the clubs – contribute to that and cannot just purely be funded by Government.

“But that is what you would need to broadly run a tiered academy system that produces players and people that go on to other pathways in the game moving forwards.”

Gavin Cummiskey

Gavin Cummiskey

Gavin Cummiskey is The Irish Times' Soccer Correspondent