The Irish FA’s failure to apply for the correct Sport NI grant has resulted in the governing body missing out on up to £1m in funding.
The Sunday Life reports the IFA applied for a Sporting Winners grant, but they are aimed at the Olympic, Paralympic and Commonwealth Games.
It was turned down but if the IFA had applied for a Sporting Clubs grant, funding would have been available.
Ulster Rugby, Ulster GAA and Cricket Ireland made successful applications.
Sport NI invited sporting bodies to submit applications for its two programmes, which run for the 2017-2021 term.
“The IFA had the potential to make submissions to both programmes – the IFA did not make a submission to the Sporting Clubs Programme,” a Sport NI spokesperson told the Sunday Life.
“If they had applied to the the Sporting Clubs programme and been successful it’s likely they would have received around £1m.”
Cashing in
Ulster Rugby received £547, 964 from the Sporting Clubs programme while the GAA’s Ulster Council (£882,794), Ulster Camogie Council (£252,136) and Cricket Ireland (£373,995) also benefitted from the scheme.
“The Irish Football Association attended pre-application workshops that focused on Sporting Winners and Sporting Clubs programmes (2017-2021) which were run by Sport NI,” the IFA told the Sunday Life.
“The association applied in all good faith – as did Ulster Rugby, Ulster GAA and Cricket Ireland – to Sporting Winners as this was the successor programme to two previous four-year cycles where it had received Sport NI funding for its elite performance programme.
“The association applied to the programme which it felt was appropriate for its needs at the time.”
