Ruaidhri Higgins slams NI Football Fund decision as 'an absolute disgrace' with North West 'shafted again'

All three clubs from the area – Coleraine, Derry City and Institute – were absent from the list of 20 who have progressed to the next stage.

Many believed ‘Stute and Ards, two Irish League clubs currently without their own ground, would be worthy recipients of vital funding, but both have been left frustrated after being left out at this point.

Institute have been without a home since their Riverside Stadium suffered extensive flooding damage back in 2017 and chairman Bill Anderson confirmed the Co Londonderry outfit had applied for more than £6million to make their dream of returning to Waterside a reality.

During his announcement in Belfast, Lyons insisted the door hasn’t been closed on any club and his staff will be working alongside those omitted to fine-tune their business cases.

Higgins has a strong association with the North West having been born in Limavady before going on to represent Derry City and Coleraine during his playing career.

The 40-year-old has now also managed both clubs and while it was a positive day for many in the Irish League, he feels it was “shocking” for the likes of Institute.

"Geographically, the North West has been shafted again, it has been shafted again,” he said. “It’s becoming a really common theme and you might say it’s sour grapes because of my connection to Coleraine and Derry City, but I’m not going to talk about either, I’ll talk about Institute.

"If there’s one club that needed support, it’s them. I never swear in press conferences, but it’s a f*****g disgrace, it’s an absolute disgrace.

"In 2017, they lost their ground through no fault of their own. It’s a brilliant football club ran by brilliant people and they’ve been absolutely trampled on from what I see.

"I’ve spoken to somebody who works night and day for the club on a voluntary basis and they are absolutely devastated. I’ve no association with Institute...it’s a brilliant family-run football club with brilliant people.

"It was a disaster eight years ago and they’ve been given no backing at all, which surprises me in one sense, but when you look at geographically where they are based, I’m not surprised at all.

"It’s far enough away from Stormont where they won’t be heard as much...I read people saying it’s a great day for football in Northern Ireland, it’s a great day for some clubs, it’s absolutely shocking for others.”

Coleraine have plans to redevelop The Showgrounds into a state-of-the-art North West Regional Stadium with a new 6-8,000-seat capacity, but they were also omitted.

Cliftonville and Glentoran were the only two clubs from eight applications in Tier Three (projects valued at £6million or more) to progress into the next stage.

"I think we could be doing with a bit of help as well,” added Higgins. “We were training so we’re not long off, but it’s a bit of anger and frustration.

"It’s part of the world and country, and a lot of people will back me up, that gets neglected. Nobody can tell me any different.”