Kate Hoey: The IFA has rolled over … Casement Park will not deliver Northern Ireland with a football legacy from the Euros

Big sporting events are special.

I recall my time spent at the Mexico World Cup in 1986 as if it were yesterday.

Watching Pat Jennings play his last match for our wee country against Brazil in Guadalajara on his 41st birthday is a lifelong memory.

The Euros in France in 2016 were, too, for many travelling supporters a once-in-a-lifetime celebration of team and country.

The Irish Football Association (IFA), the governing body for the sport in Northern Ireland, has for the past few years been working with the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) and the English, Scottish and Welsh bodies to prepare and sell their bid for Euro 2028. If Northern Ireland is to be a genuine host partner then matches must be played here.

UEFA requires that stadiums need a minimum 30,000 seats so Windsor Park at present would need an increased capacity of around 12,000.

Given that the redevelopment of Casement Park requires a complete rebuild at a cost of around 120 to 150 million pounds, and that there is temporary seating agreed in the planning permission, why did the IFA not argue for a smaller project at Windsor Park, replacing the north stand (in need of replacement) and filling in the corner gaps?

This would have meant a football stadium fit for the long term.

Instead, it would seem that the guardians and promoters of NI football rolled over and proactively championed a project which, after the Euros, will be a GAA-only stadium with no legacy for football.

The CEO of the IFA, Patrick Nelson, claims this is an “exciting and transformational project”.

I would ask transformational to whom exactly?

Not the grassroots clubs across the province who are crying out for much-needed funding to assist with even the most basic health and safety of their facilities.

Not for the young boys and girls who might hope to wear the famous green jersey, but who don’t even have a dry place to change in.

Not for the community clubs who are the bedrock of their local area.

Certainly not transformational for the current Irish league champions, Larne, who were barred from using their home ground by UEFA earlier this year due to their pitch being overused by the local community.

Derry City, too, had to move their European tie to Dublin as they were not UEFA compliant.

So far there have only been vague promises about who will pay the extra money needed for Casement Park.

The GAA have so far been reluctant to increase the £15 million contribution they originally agreed when all three major sports – rugby, football and GAA – were awarded a more or less equal amount to improve their stadiums.

It is not football’s fault that Casement Park ran into planning delays with opposition from local people and it is not the NI Football League’s fault that the sub regional fund for £36 million approved 11 years ago has not been released.

Secretary of state Chris Heaton-Harris must tell us where the money he said he would find is coming from?

Why can the GAA not get a loan from one of the many Irish institutions, to be paid back from the profits they will make in the future?

Why should our government finance Casement Park when there is a desperate need for Irish League grounds to be modernised and the grassroots of football has been starved of investment?

Linfield manager David Healy’s recent criticism of the IFA’s failure to capitalise on the success in the 2016 Euros by building the promised national training centre was right. Now, even more, it looks like the IFA has gone for the rose-tinted quick fix of a tournament which will not even guarantee the Northern Ireland team playing in it.

The only substantial way to excite a new generation into football is to make our local football better both on and off the pitch so that our international team comprises more genuine homegrown players who started their playing in Northern Ireland.

The IFA must listen to supporters’ warnings, especially Gary McAllister, chair of the Amalgamation of Official Northern Ireland Supporters' Clubs (AONISC), a group which has done so much to make Windsor Park welcome to all.

Football stadia, no matter how grand, are nothing without supporters and Northern Ireland has without doubt the most wonderful supporters in Europe.

We have witnessed some of our most famous footballing moments at Windsor Park when it was deemed to be barely fit for purpose.

The Euros are about a celebration of football and are meant to leave a legacy for football in the host country. Casement Park is not such a legacy.

Big projects are liable for delay and increased costs. The Buckingham Group, one of Casement’s developers, has recently filed for administration and become insolvent, causing the Department of Communities to undertake a due diligence report. It is likely the optimistic euphoria, particularly from the BBC, will soon be reduced.

What many fear is that even if the funding is found the stadium will not be ready by 2027 (a UEFA deadline) and it will never see a single football match played there.

Then only one sport will be left with a legacy from Euro 2028 and it won’t be football.

l Baroness Hoey of Lylehill and Rathlin is a former Labour MP and former UK minister for sport