THE FAI ARE setting up pilot projects with their counterparts in Gaelic games and professional rugby to establish “a new model for facility development in this country”.

FAI chief executive David Courell detailed how they are in the exploratory stages of discussions with the GAA and IRFU about how to create municipal facilities across the country.

Courell explained that the GAA were “very open to collaborating” and that “they recognise that it’s in the interest of Irish sport that we do share facilities more readily.”

Facility development is one of the three core pillars of the FAI’s latest strategy plan for 2026 to 2029, which Courell presented at Aviva Stadium earlier today.

The FAI received government funding to the tune of €112m in 2024 and they hope to secure a 15% increase in each round of Community Sports Facilities Fund as well as 30% of what’s allocated for the next round of Large Scale Sports Infrastructure Funding. League of Ireland clubs received €43.75m last time out, with a total of €173m distributed for sports around the country.

Debt 

The FAI CEO insisted that debt levels will be reduced to less than €25 million by the end of 2029, and also confirmed that 48 staff members have taken voluntary redundancy and a further 15 will leave through a compulsory process in the coming days.

Courell said that the association would be capable of reducing debt levels regardless of international teams’ performance on the pitch, although the establishment of the Global Ireland Football Foundation (GIFF) – “an independent funding vehicle” first announced at the FAI’s AGM last year – will not be used to pay any of it off but instead have a target of €15 million by the end of this strategy cycle to put back into facilities around the country.

“Of all the investment opportunities in Irish sport, Irish football presents one of the most compelling ones,” Courell said.

Current Shamrock Rovers minority owner Ray Wilson, who is based in Australia, is on the GIFF board alongside former Leicester City CEO Susan Whelan and Salford City investor Colin Ryan. Three more appointments will be made in the coming months.

Establishing multi-sport partnerships is highlighted in the strategy document and the FAI CEO expanded on the current state of play with those discussions among their peers.

“We are speaking with both the GAA and rugby about how we can increase collaboration to realise multi-sport, ideally, municipal facilities across the country. I think there’s recognition that as the three largest field sports in the country, we have the biggest demand.

“If we can start to identify ways forward, then that’s something that I think is only a positive thing,” Courell said.

Dublin GAA recently got approval for a new €13 million centre of excellence, just a few kilometres from FAI headquarters, but that has not been discussed as an option.

“We haven’t spoken about that facility specifically. I did see that it secured backing a couple of weeks ago, which is fair play to them. I know we have a small team of representatives from the FAI, IRFU and GAA that have been working over the last number of months to see if there are maybe a couple of pilot projects that we can work with government on to see if we can realise a new model for facility development in this country.

Investment 

“Because quite frankly, it wasn’t particularly well thought out over the last 30, 40, 50 years, where we now find ourselves with too many facilities with not enough usage and therefore not enough justification for investment and upkeep.

“So there needs to be consolidation and there needs to be, I suppose, better, more robust facilities to allow more efficient usage, like more floodlights to play later into the evening.”

Courell was positive about the relationships that have been cultivated so far but stressed caution about short-term plans. “Credit to the GAA, they’ve been very clear over recent years that they’re very open to collaborating. I think they recognise that it’s in the interest of Irish sport that we do share facilities more readily. So that’s something that we’ll explore.

“I don’t want you to walk away from here thinking that there’s some big grand plan about to be announced in Q2 (the next few months). That’s not where we are. We’re purely at exploratory stages, but hopefully it will be encouraging to your readers and listeners that ultimately we are trying to work collectively as a sporting landscape to see if we can improve the fortunes of others.”

Courell is adamant that the redundancy programme the FAI have been carrying out as part of the restructure over the last number of months will not stop them from delivering progress for Irish football.

One of the standout lines from the early brief regarding the strategy was that the FAI were already the third worst performing association of all 55 Uefa members. However, the full details of the data from the European governing body has been anonymised.

There are countries like Croatia whose success we would love to emulate in terms of population size and their domestic game and international football,” Courell said.

When pressed on whether there will now be enough staff to see through the strategy, Courell insisted that “we maintain we do”.

Part of the restructuring has led to regional development officers throughout the country being scrapped, while long-running youth training schemes such as the FAI-ETB (Education and Training Board) Player Development Programmes have also ended.

Underage international managers are now operating on two-year fixed contracts, with five of 10 positions between head coaches and assistants still to be filled this month.

“Some colleagues that have left or stayed with the organisation have achieved amazing things over their time but they may have been with the team for 10-15 years. And variety is needed in a high-performance environment so that you’re continuing to test yourself and challenge yourself,” Courell said, adding that the FAI have “fundamentally changed how we’re delivering” and that “the support is there, it’s just in a different role.

“I know it may appear to be counterintuitive, given we now have less people than we had six months ago. But I believe, fundamentally, that the structure of the organisation now, post transformation, is better place to deliver on this strategy than we would have been six months ago.

“Because we did it in a very methodical manner. We developed our strategy, we’ve had this in the can for some time. We developed our transformation structure around that so that they actually line up and that is what delivers effectively.”