The FAI is hopeful that fundraising via high net-worth individuals and the diaspora will boost investment into grassroots facilities to the tune of at least €15 million.
In 2023 the association published a strategic analysis in which it outlined that €863 million would be required over a 15-year period in order to address the significant infrastructure issues within the game.
On Tuesday at Aviva Stadium, the FAI released their strategy document for the 2026-29 period.
In it they said that €122m of the target figure had been raised to date.
However, in relation to the €426m that is related to grassroots, it's deemed that "traditional funding" - including government grants - will not bridge the gap alone.
Through the Global Ireland Football Foundation, a newly-formed fundraising entity, Irish football's governing body hopes that philanthropy can be channeled in the direction of facilities.
Via that avenue, the FAI is aiming that by 2029, a minimum of €15m can be raised that would be exclusively earmarked for grassroots infrastructure.
The GIFF will operate independently of the association, with its own eight-member board - two of which will be filled by FAI members, namely Tony Keohane and president Paul Cooke.
In January, the first independent directors were appointed with Colin Ryan, the chief strategy and corporate development officer at US tech company Qualcomm, designated as chairman.
Former Leicester City CEO Susan Whelan and Shamrock Rovers co-owner Ray Wilson are also part of the board, with three more directors to be appointed.
Speaking at the launch of the 2026-29 strategy at Aviva Stadium, FAI CEO David Courell said he was hopeful that the GIFF could make a telling difference.
"This is dedicated to facilities, so is quite novel and ambitious. I’m really encouraged by the starting point that we find ourselves in now," he said.
"We've had unbelievably strong initial appointments to the board. I’m very excited about what’s to come."
On whether the €15m would be an overly modest target considering the scale of overall funding needed for grassroots facilities, he said, "Of course, we'd love to secure more than that and that's something that hopefully will come but we also need to be realistic and make sure that we don't over-stretch ourselves.
"€15 million is still a significant chunk of money. As you know, our debt is currently sitting at €37.5m so you're looking at a pretty significant percentage of that which we wouldn’t be able to resource ourselves.
"If we can generate that income stream or philanthropic donation stream from elsewhere that’s a positive for Irish football."
Ryan, Whelan and Wilson are all on the board of directors of the Ireland Funds chapters in the United States, Great Britain and Australia respectively.
The Ireland Funds, which has chapters in 12 countries, utilises a philanthropic network across the diaspora to raise funds for projects within Ireland.
Courell cited it as a model for what the FAI intend to achieve through the GIFF.
"I am taking a huge amount of energy from what we are hearing from the experts in this space. So Ireland Funds are the most established philanthropic funding body internationally. We have been speaking with them for a couple of years," he said.
"We have built a whole concept around what they believe will work, what will resonate.
"We need to have the right constitution to be able to access the right donations and donors from a tax efficiency perspective.
"For example, North American donations would have to be predominantly grassroots facilities only.
"Domestic donors in Ireland may be able to extend to say national training centres etc. So there are differences across them.
"But there is a very strong track record within the Ireland Funds of generating money. And if we, again, by virtue of who we've appointed, I think we are well positioned now to really establish a strong partnership with them and go and secure that money."
Courell also said the FAI is also speaking to other sporting bodies in regard to the use and development of multi-sports facilities.
"We are speaking with both the GAA and rugby about how we can increase collaboration to realise multi-sport, ideally, municipal facilities across the country," he said.
"I think there's recognition that as the three largest field sports in the country, we have the biggest demand. If we can start to identify ways forward, then that's something that I think is only a positive thing.
"I know we have a small team of representatives from the FAI, IRFU and GAA that have been working over the last number of months to see if there are maybe a couple of pilot projects that we can work with government on to see if we can realise a new model for facility development in this country."
On the use of Gaelic games facilities by soccer, he added: "Credit to the GAA, they've been very clear over recent years that they're very open to collaborating. I think they recognise that it's in the interest of Irish sport that we do share facilities more readily. So that's something that we'll explore."
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