Next Tuesday's Budget announcement offers an opportunity that Irish football cannot afford to see pass by.
For decades, the game here has been under-resourced, undervalued, and left to make do on the fringes of Irish sport, despite being the country’s most-played game.
Minister for Sport Patrick O’Donovan, Paschal Donohoe, Jack Chambers and Charlie McConalogue now have the chance to create a legacy - not just for themselves, but for Irish society as a whole - by giving Irish football the leg-up it so desperately needs to become a sustainable, thriving industry.
Last Friday, the League of Ireland department within the FAI submitted a detailed investment proposal to government. It’s a bold but carefully thought-out plan: €8.9 million in funding over the first two years, followed by a five-year spell of full government backing, before a gradual scaling-down over the following four years.
Across 11 years, the total ask is €80 million - a number that must be judged in the context of both its possible return on investment and its potential to fundamentally change Irish football for the better.
Oversight and governance are key components of the proposal. Nobody wants taxpayers’ money wasted, least of all those of us within the game who have lived through the mismanagement of the past.
This isn’t about throwing cash blindly at clubs or plastering over cracks with short-term grants.
Instead, the plan is built on strict accountability: ensuring funds are spent where they should be – on coaches and key personnel that can deliver lasting change. By ringfencing this investment in the right areas, the government can guarantee value for money and build a domestic football ecosystem that pays back tenfold.
And make no mistake: the payback is real. The economic analysis accompanying the proposal suggests an additional return of €40–50 million a year to the wider Irish economy, and that’s before considering the knock-on effects of more successful senior international teams.
Think back to the glory of Italia 90, or even the more recent buzz around Euro 2016. Those tournaments felt like national events that inspired pride and projected Ireland onto a global stage in ways no marketing campaign ever could.
But all that success relied upon development routes through the UK football industry, which have been closed off to underage Irish players post-Brexit.
With proper academy funding, Ireland has a chance to consistently qualify for major tournaments again, ensuring the tricolour is flying at the world’s biggest sporting occasions.
Last year the BDO Economic Impact Assessment Report showed the League of Ireland alone generates €165m to the economy with €40m in direct taxes returned to the state.
Asking for an initial 10% of the direct taxation it generates to re-invest and create further economic benefits is not a big ask.
Football is a global sport. Its economy is vast and interconnected, stretching from Premier League boardrooms to grassroots clubs in every village on the planet.
Yet Ireland has never properly entered that ecosystem. Our domestic game has been left lagging behind. Modest, targeted investment can change that.
For Ireland, investing in football is not just a sporting decision - it can be a cultural, social, and economic decision.
It is a chance to bind communities together, to inspire the next generation, and to show the world that Ireland is serious about playing its part in football’s global industry.
Consider the cost of inaction. If the government chooses not to invest, Irish football will stumble on, producing occasional talents but failing to create a sustainable pipeline of players.
Clubs will struggle to produce enough talent, international results will only get worse, and the game will miss out on its potential in the Irish sporting and economic landscape.
But with the right support, football could be one of the great growth industries of the next decade.
The €80 million proposal is not a sports grant. It’s a carefully-phased investment, designed to put football on its own two feet.
After 11 years, the idea is that the game will be sustainable, no longer reliant on government intervention, and fully capable of funding itself through commercial deals, broadcast rights, and the transfer market. That’s how every other successful football nation operates - and Ireland deserves the same chance.
The question, then, is whether the political will exists. This is their opportunity to show leadership, to create a legacy that will be remembered in packed stadiums, successful clubs, and Irish players competing on the biggest stages in world football.
Irish football is not asking for the moon here. It’s asking for a modest investment in a sport that already engages hundreds of thousands of children, families, and communities every single week.
It’s asking for a chance to take our place in football’s global ecosystem, to stop being spectators and start being participants.
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