Ian Mallon: No anti-soccer bias for grants, claims government
NO BIAS: Minister for Sport, Thomas Byrne. Pic: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin
THE Department of Sport has hit back at claims that not enough soccer clubs receive state grants, by insisting that “every single (football project) application” which sought funding last year was successful.
It has also revealed that €25m was awarded to those clubs that applied under the Sports Capital & Equipment Programme (SCEP) during the last round of funding – figures released by Roy Barrett show that funding, on a per-year basis since 2000, works out at €5.3m.
In a detailed statement to The Pitch, the Department of Sport also denied that there was bias in favour of rugby and GAA when it came to funding, stating that “no money is ring-fenced for any particular sport”.
During a lengthy submission to announce his resignation as Chairman of the FAI Board, Barrett had accused the state of a “chronic underinvestment” of exchequer funds in football, when compared to GAA and rugby.
Using data going back 22 years, Barrett said that GAA clubs have received €430m in Government grants, while rugby clubs were in receipt of €57m, with football - the most participated sport - getting €118m.
This, according to Barrett, equates to an average investment by the state of €280k per rugby club (actual figure is €283k), €208k for every GAA club (actual €215k), while football received “less than €100k” (€98k).
Minister for Sport Thomas Byrne warned this week that the data used by Roy Barrett goes back almost a quarter of a century, while the Department of Sport today has attempted to demonstrate that matters have changed significantly in that time.
In correspondence to Irish Examiner Sport, the Department said: “The latest (2020) round of the SCEP closed for applications on Monday 1 March 2021 and by the deadline a record 3,106 applications were submitted (by all sports).
“The final allocations under this latest round were announced last May and the total allocation of over €166 million represented the highest level of allocation ever made under the SCEP.
“In relation to soccer projects alone, over €25m was allocated. When allocating funding under the SCEP, no money is ring-fenced for any particular sport and money is instead allocated in line with the published scoring criteria.
“It is important to note that every single valid capital application that was received for soccer projects under this latest round of the SCEP received a grant allocation.”
It added that further large-scale project funding for football, outside of SCEP, has been made available to “include Dalymount Park (design funding), Finn Harps stadium in Donegal and a new FAI Munster Centre of Excellence in Cork”.
GAA sources said that the issues raised by Roy Barrett are more likely to do with soccer clubs not applying for available grants with the same enthusiasm as GAA clubs.
“I think what Roy Barrett has done is give a very back-handed compliment on how efficient GAA clubs are at applying for sports capital grants, and that’s maybe an issue for soccer,” said the insider.
Following an analysis of the latest rounds of funding requests by sports clubs, The Pitch has assessed that GAA club applications outnumber those from football by an average of 5-1 regionally – although there are 2,000 GAA clubs v soccer’s 1,200.
Roy Barrett said last week: “The reality is that there has been chronic underinvestment in Irish football for the last 20 years or so and people can look at all of the reasons as to why that’s happened.”
The new Minister for Sport Thomas Byrne touched on the application system this week when he suggested that football clubs were not always good at applying for funding.
“The GAA were excellent at this 15 years ago,” said Byrne.
The Minister of State also alluded to the FAI’s “significant Government support in their darkest days”.
This is where Roy Barrett’s bias claim gets tested further, through these other funding streams which have been of greater benefit to football than other sports – particularly the ‘Field Sports Investment Programme’.
Last year the FAI were awarded €5.8m against the GAA’s €2.4m and IRFU’s €2.2m –receiving €1.2m more than the IRFU and GAA combined.
What Roy Barrett has cleverly done is to go back to his old role as a stockbroker, and turned various sporting assets into share price valuations – the only issue now is whether he has deliberately devalued his own organisation’s stock.
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NEARLY 70,000 basketball fans attended the Spurs versus Warriors last Friday night, smashing all previous records for a single-game attendance in the NBA.
The trend first came to attention 48 hours before the game when it was announced that 63,592 tickets had sold for the game at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
By the time the champions, Golden State Warriors, and superstar Steph Curry rolled into town on Friday night, that figure had risen to over 68,000 demonstrating the extraordinary growth of basketball as a ticket.
The game is enjoying a phenomenal growth period on this side of the pond with wall-to-wall coverage on Sky Sports, and through one of the more interesting merchandising activations in retail.
Primark now supplies an official NBA range in all of its Pennys stores across the country, thanks to a partnership which has expanded since it was first established in 2021.
Sarah Jackson, Director of Licensing, Primark told The Pitch that the “NBA range has grown from strength to strength since it first launched in Primark stores” in May 2021.
It represents the fashion retailer’s biggest sports collaboration to date and originally concentrated on clothing by the most renowned teams, the LA Lakers and Chicago Bulls, before adding the Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons to this year’s range.
“The collection forms part of Primark’s growing US sports branded license offering which also includes the NFL.”
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WHEN the LA Chargers surged into a 27-0 lead against Jacksonville at last weekend’s NFL playoffs, a US sports bettor decided to move for a quick kill.
After all no team had ever blown a 27-point lead in the playoffs in history and so how could such an investment fail?
The unnamed gambler – whose bet was confirmed by US betting firm Draft Kings Sportsbook – placed a staggering $1.4m on a Chargers victory, and sat back to welcome home a profit of $11,200.
However, instead of flipping his money into winnings of $1,411,200, Jacksonville Jaguars then staged a remarkable comeback – coming back to win 31-30, losing the staker’s ‘investment’ in the process.
US sports business writer Darren Rovell verified the story with confirmation coming from DKSportsbook, within 24 hours of the calamity.
The return of the original stake was 0.8% or 1/125 for the bet when placed.
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LAST week in an examination of the high costs for children to represent their local League of Ireland or district team in the upcoming SSE U14 National League, The Pitch reported that Shamrock Rovers charged a fee to play. In fact, while players up to U13 level pay up to €310 to play for the champions' underage teams, the fee has been waived for U14 players. It is one of the only clubs which does not charge the most talented players, so hopefully others will take notice ahead of the league kick-off in February.
