NIFL chief outlines funding needed for football as he welcomes 'first step'

Gerard Lawlor has welcomed the long-overdue funding support for football in Northern Ireland, but insists there is "a lot of work to do". Communities Minister Gordon Lyons has announced a £36.2m package to improve facilities here, including grassroots football and a new National Training Centre.

He told Belfast Live: "A lot of work has gone into getting us here. We have got to be pleased we have got to this point, but we realise there is a lot of work to do. The newly titled Northern Ireland Football Fund - previously known as the Sub-Regional Stadia Funding programme - will be phased out across three strands. Applications will open this financial year with clubs expected to receive grants from next April.

Lawlor said: "A figure of £200m has been mentioned for all football, but for the senior game here we are looking at £120m at today's prices. That is only going to rise. So that's a minimum, and that was a figure calculated six months ago. It is big money. "There is need all over the place. Some clubs will have more needs that others and need bigger sticking plasters to function. We have to work our way through that.

"We have 47 football clubs in the NIFL family to work our way through and we are determined to work our way through that."

Stormont

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