IFA failings costing clubs £4m, committee told

The continuing failure of the North's football governing body to reform its internal structures is depriving local clubs of a £4m (€4.78m) British government cash boost, a Stormont committee heard today.

Around half of an £8m (€9.56m) fund to develop the game has still not been paid out to the Irish Football Association five years since it was set up by Stormont ministers.

The release of the money was dependent on the IFA modernising its governance arrangements and while the organisation has undertaken a number of reforms, including forming an executive committee, it has still to meet all the criteria required.

The revelation comes six weeks after the IFA dramatically sacked its Chief Executive Howard Wells – a government appointee who has been credited with driving through much of the internal re-organisation programme.

Wells’ dismissal happened months after it was revealed he had taken grievance cases against the association, one claiming he was treated unfairly because he was English.

The IFA has declined to explain why Wells was sacked but has denied it was to do with the grievance complaints.

Today officials from Sports minister Gregory Campbell’s department told members of his scrutiny committee that the outstanding money would continue to be withheld until the changes were carried out.

“There was an initial allocation of £4m (€4.78m) and very little of that has been spent to date,” Acting Director of Sports, Museums and Recreation Hazel Campbell said.

She added: “The reason that I’ve been given is that there’s a reform of governance programme being carried out in the IFA and there are key issues that are still outstanding and therefore Sport NI (government sports body) have not been able to release the funding.”

Committee member David McNarry (Ulster Unionist, Strangford) described the hold up as extraordinary while Pat Ramsey (SDLP, Foyle) questioned the IFA’s commitment to change.

“Do the IFA not want to go forward as a modern organisation that’s fit for purpose?” he asked after the meeting.

“A lot of local clubs will be disappointed that we’ve got a situation where we have £4m (€4.78m) that could be spent by clubs but the IFA is not yet in a position to tie down the funds.”

IFA Chief Executive Raymond Kennedy acknowledged there were still outstanding governance issues but insisted they would be resolved in the early new year.

“There have been various reports over the years regarding all the different steps the IFA have to take and the most recent one by FPM (charter accountants) came out two months ago and highlighted issues. We’ve now got to work on addressing those.

“I have given Sport NI assurances that those points will be addressed by the end of January.

“We have moved on 99% and we now only have a very small bit to do to complete the puzzle, once that’s completely satisfied then I am confident the money will be rolled out.”