FAI unveils 863m euro infrastructure plan to transform Irish football

Part of the FAI's plan is to upgrade all League of Ireland stadia so they have a minimum 4,000 capacity

The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) has announced ambitious plans to invest 863m euro (£743m) to modernise the infrastructure of Irish football.

Investment will be sought over a 15-year period.

The FAI wants 47m euro (£40.4m) to upgrade its Abbotstown National Training Centre for its Republic of Ireland teams.

It also aims to spend 426m euros (£366m) at grassroots level and 390m euro (£335m) on the League of Ireland.

Unveiling its 'Facility Investment Vision and Strategy' on Thursday, the association said football in Ireland "has been under invested in for the last 25 years and we have fallen behind our European counterparts in facilities investment".

The FAI hopes to secure 517m euro (£445m) of funding from the Irish government, 173m euro (£149m) from local authorities such as educational bodies and health authorities and 173m euro from their own funding sources, including Fifa and Uefa.

It is also proposing the establishment of an independent 'Ireland Football Facility Fund' to ensure a "consistent, professional, and dedicated focus on facilities transformation for our game".

Abbotstown not fit for purpose

One of the FAI's aims is to develop a new National Training Centre after admitting the current set-up at Abbotstown in Dublin falls "far short of the standard seen in many other European associations".

The association's goal is to improve facilities in order to produce competitive international teams that can qualify for major tournaments on a regular basis.

The Republic of Ireland women's team has qualified for this year's World Cup, but while the men's team reached the Euro 2012 and 2016 finals, their last World Cup appearance was in 2002.

The FAI's statement said: "In the current facility, there are no changing rooms for players, match officials or staff, no high-performance, medical or sports science facilities.

"In addition, playing surfaces are below standard and include ageing artificial surfaces that need to be replaced."

The FAI also plans to improve League of Ireland stadia and training facilities, which the association says is "clearly holding the league back".

By the end of the 15-year plan, the association wants every League of Ireland stadium to have a minimum capacity of 4,000, and wants each club to have its own academy and training ground.

The FAI says Ireland is one of 12 European countries not to have completed a full stadium project between 2009 and 2018.

At grassroots level, the FAI wants to build new and upgrade existing facilities with a particular focus on the girls' and women's game, which it says has experienced "exponential growth in recent years and will suffer if we do not invest in facilities now, as we will not be able to cater for this ongoing demand and growth".

The report says there is "a lack of basic female-friendly facilities to cater for the 34,000 women and girls currently playing" in Ireland, with 38% of clubs unable to offer female-friendly toilets.