Irish League clubs receive first offers of financial support from Northern Ireland Football Fund
Communities Minister Gordon Lyons has announced that the first offers of financial support have been issued to Irish League clubs through the Northern Ireland Football Fund (NIFF).
In September, Lyons announced 20 clubs had progressed to NIFF’s next stage through the Performance Programme strand with projects totalling £82million.
The development came 14 years after football clubs were first promised £36.2million, which remains the figure ringfenced for NIFF, to make crucial upgrades to infrastructure.
Clubs receiving money were split into three tiers with Glentoran and Cliftonville, the two successful bids in Tier Three (projects valued at more than £6million), the big winners – the Glens’ project to redevelop their Oval base sat around £28million.
Letters of offer for funding to prepare outline business case have now been issued to the 20 clubs, representing a total financial support of up to £400,000 and marking the first awarding of money.
The Department for Communities has confirmed the £400,000 is from a resource budget separate to the £36.2million capital budget for NIFF.
Ten clubs have previously received business case funding from the Football Ground Business Case Development Fund (FGBCDF) and will now receive up to £10,000 to update their business cases.
Those 10 clubs are: Ballymena United, Bangor, Carrick Rangers, Cliftonville, Dungannon Swifts, Glenavon, Glentoran, Larne, Loughgall and Newry City.
The remaining 10 clubs will receive up to £30,000 to develop a new business case from scratch: Armagh City, Ballinamallard United, Ballymacash Sports Academy, Banbridge Town, Dergview, Lisburn Distillery, Lisburn Rangers, Oxford Sunnyside, Queen’s University and Rathfriland Rangers.
Clubs will be expected to prepare and submit completed business cases within three to six months for Departmental approval.
“When I announced the cohort of football club projects progressing to the next stage of the Northern Ireland Football Fund, I undertook to support clubs so that projects would move forward as quickly as possible,” said Lyons. “I am delighted that these first offers of support have been made. Clubs have waited long enough for this funding to be made available.
“It’s now over to clubs now to develop or finalise their business cases which set out their detailed project proposals, costs and benefits. They will be doing that over the next couple of months, and my officials will be on hand to help them.”