Irish FA five-year plan: Governing body set to announce 'international class' training centre

Irish FA president Conrad Kirkwood says the governing body will do "everything we can" to make the training centre a reality

A new world-class national training centre for Northern Ireland football will be announced later this year, the Irish FA has said.

A plan for such a facility was announced over a decade ago but IFA president Conrad Kirkwood is confident the funding will soon materialise.

"We will do everything we can to make it a reality," said Kirkwood.

The news came as part of a five-year road map for Northern Ireland football revealed on Thursday.

The IFA has not confirmed where the national training centre will be located while funding for the project is also not clear as the government has not formally announced any support.

"It is a very important part that we have a national identity for all of our players - women, girls, men and boys," added the IFA president.

"Many other countries have one and it is important that we improve our capacity in that regard."

The IFA president added he was "very disappointed" that the long-mooted sub-regional funding for stadiums throughout Northern Ireland has not been made available.

"Everything is about money, no matter what endeavours you are trying to do," he said.

"I'm very grateful for the £26m we did get, and we have a National Stadium at Windsor Park that we can be proud of.

"Of course I would like to see the other £36m released and, in the passage of time, £36m simply isn't enough to redevelop in the way that we need.

"The important thing for us is to lobby government and to show them the value of the work that we do."

Also part of the five-year corporate strategy announced by the IFA on Thursday is a desire that the senior teams should be aiming to progress to half of the major tournaments though the Northern Ireland senior teams have qualified for only five finals in the country's history.