'This can’t fail,' FAI Academy supremo outlines grim reality if academy funding doesn’t flow

League of Ireland academy development manager Will Clarke during an EA SPORTS national underage league media day in Abbotstown, Dublin. Picture: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

A Government-funded audit of the €8m-per-annum academy proposal will be completed by August, with a decision on grant aid due by the end of the year.

The FAI have been lobbying the State to majority meet the costs attached to developing an industry capable of succeeding the traditional UK emigration path for teens curbed by Brexit.