£11m offer linked to scraping Arena

The Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Jim McDaid, yesterday attempted to drive a wedge between the FAI and National League clubs over the association's proposed 40,000 seat stadium at Citywest.

While announcing the latest round of grants to be made from the Sports Capital Programme at Dalymount Park the Minister said that more than £11 million in funding for ground improvements could be made available to clubs if the association was to abandon its own project and throw its weight behind the scheme backed by JP McManus and the Taoiseach to build an 80,000 multi-sports national stadium.

"I met with the FAI recently when they presented me with what was effectively a wish list for slightly over £11 million in improvements that they wanted to make and I said to them that I thought we could probably look after them if they were to reconsider their current position on the stadium issue," he said.

The Minister went on to state that the feasibility study on the national stadium project was due to be concluded soon and that no decision would be taken until then but he described the current climate as a "golden opportunity" when "we have a Taoiseach and Minister for Finance whose spiritual homes are far closer to being Croke Park and the Curragh than Croagh Patrick and Lough Derg".

He added that a large chunk of the funding for the project was still available from a consortium led by JP McManus and that if the association chose to avail of the government-backed scheme that they would, in turn, have the chance to give the senior domestic league an enormous boost by, he said, making the sort of improvement at stadiums around the country that would help "bring the crowds back to National League games".

Clearly angered by the proposal last night, however, National League president Michael Hyland rejected the notion that McDaid had made any firm offer to the league or that, if one was to be made, that it would dampen the enthusiasm for the FAI's Arena.

"Brendan Menton and I met with the Minister a few weeks ago and we made a presentation on behalf of the league but he didn't make any firm offer then and he hasn't come back to the FAI since," said Hyland last night.

"What he has done is mention this offer to other people but if he thinks that he is going to cause problems between the clubs and the FAI now he is mistaken because everything is in place for us to proceed with the planning application for the Arena and the clubs remain firmly behind Bernard O'Byrne and FAI's determination to go ahead with building the stadium."

Hyland admitted that even the possibility of such large scale funding being made available had not been discussed at any level by club representatives but this, he said, would have been pointless in the absence of any concrete offer.

"The whole thing reminds me of when Sam Hamann talked about coming here with Wimbledon and offer the National League clubs £10 million to allow him in," remarked Hyland before adding that "well, Minister McDaid has gone a million pounds better than Wimbledon."

The Minister had made the comments while announcing that two National League outfits, Bohemians and Shelbourne, would be amongst the major beneficiaries of the latest round of National Lottery funding. The Phibsborough club has been allocated £400,000 from the Capital Programme in addition to the £100,000 of public money that had already been earmarked for the first phase of the redevelopment of Dalymount Park. Shelbourne, meanwhile, have been given a further £300,000 to assist with the continued development of Tolka Park.

He said that a separate announcement would be made regarding the funding of GAA ground developments around the country which are to be considered over the next two to three months.

Welcoming the news of his club's funding yesterday, Bohemians club secretary Gerry Cuffe said that Bohemians were extremely grateful for the money and that the club could now fully fund the building of the stand.

"We got £550,000 for the land we sold at the Phibsborough end of the ground which has gone straight into this and so, along with other money that we raised ourselves, the £1.1 million cost is now completely covered.

Cuffe said that the stand, on which work is currently progressing, will be ready by the end of October but that while the builders have assured the club that the pitch would be playable from the start of the season no final decision has been taken yet on whether to transfer early home games to another ground.

Funding for projects confirmed yesterday: Development of Regatta course and other facilities by the Irish Amateur Rowing Union at Iniscarra, Co Cork (£500,000); Additional development of Sports Centre at National University of Ireland, Galway (£500,000); Refurbishment of athletics track at Cork Institute of Technology (£300,000); Development of new stand at Tolka Park (£300,000); Development of new stand at Dalymount Park (£400,000); Development of National Watersports Centre at Ballyshannon (£150,000).