FAI’s inability to fund the €5 million pledged for Munster Centre of Excellence ends project
NOT HAPPENING: Artists impressions of FAI Centre of Excellence Glanmire.
The FAI’s inability to earmark the €5m initially pledged towards the Munster Centre of Excellence scuppered the project before a sod was turned on the Glanmire site.
Seven years on from the official launch of the concept at Cork County Hall, the current FAI board finally aborted after deeming it to ‘no longer represent the greatest return on investment for the parties involved.’
According to documents lodged with the lobbying register from 2017, then FAI chief executive John Delaney quantified the cost of developing the 30-acre site to be €11.4m, including €1.4m of VAT.
With local League of Ireland club Cork City designated as anchor tenant, the envisioned facility was to feature three grass pitches, one full size Astro, three more smaller pitches, a viewing terrace and pavilion – all geared towards establishing the venue as one of the FAI’s satellite bases.
“Mr Delaney explained to the Minster (Simon Coveney) that the FAI are committing €5 million to the project,” the explanatory lobbying note stated.
At the time, despite the senior men’s team motoring towards a World Cup playoff, the FAI were carrying liabilities of €70m.
Delaney was placed on gardening leave 10 months later amid a financial and governance crisis and would depart the organisation in September 2019 armed with a severance package of €462,000.
Pat Lyons was Chairman of FORAS, the trust running Cork City FC, and he attended the lobbying meeting alongside Delaney.
“This is disappointing news for the region but should be disappointing for all of football,” said Lyons yesterday, whose involvement with Cork City ceased in 2019.
“Cork County Council were very supportive, taking an unprecedented vote to rezone from industrial land and offering it on a 99-year lease.
“That’s not to be sniffed at but the funding was to come from the Government and FAI.
“It was a project for the wider region, welcome to local clubs and referees, as well as being open to those in other Munster counties. As far as I’m aware, the FAI were planning similar centres in other provinces too.
“We had great hopes at the launch, held on the top floor of County Hall and attended by politicians and celebrities. Architects were engaged and everything was estimated properly but that might not bear any resemblance to the current cost.
“Simon Coveney called me in 2020, after I’d finished with the project, to confirm a grant of €2m was coming from the Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF) so it is disappointing that the FAI couldn’t come up with the matching funds.”
Cork City FC has in the past year passed into the private ownership of Dermot Usher and they ‘accept’ the decision from Abbotstown chiefs, still dealing with debts of around €60m, to wipe the build from their roadmap.
Sourcing training facilities for City’s myriad of teams has proven a difficult and expensive exercise for the new broom and they’re eager to discuss an alternative to this mothballed blueprint.
“Cork City FC have been in discussions with the FAI regarding the Glanmire project on an ongoing basis for some time,” the club said in a statement.
“We understand and accept the rationale behind the recent decision. It is our intention to continue discussions with the FAI, and work with them and other stakeholders in order to find a suitable solution to the strategic needs of our club, as well as football as a whole in Cork and the wider region of Munster.”
The impact of the FAI’s failure to attract a main sponsor for the men’s team over the past three years, at a loss of €2.5m per annual, is beginning to tell as ventures such as this landmark centre fall by the wayside and seven-figure grants are not being drawn down.
Minutes of meetings with Government officials from late last year that emerged through a Freedom of Information request showed the FAI seeking an extension of the arrangement to cover their annual €2.5m license fee payable to the Aviva Stadium company.
They already owe the State an interest-free loan of €7.63m for footing these charges since 2000.
Delegates are due over the summer to receive a financial update of the association’s affairs from outgoing Chairman Roy Barrett and chief executive Jonathan Hill through the release of the 2022 accounts but the annual general meeting could be delayed till later in the year due to various factors, including Ireland’s participation in the Women’s World Cup from July 20.
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