Opinion: League of Ireland academy funding must become the first in a line of victories for FAI

By Dylan Hudson

Last Tuesday’s announcement that the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) will receive “multi annual” funding of €3 million as part of Budget 2026 is a rare celebratory moment for the sport in the country.  

The funding will go towards a new scheme aiming to help professionalise academies in Ireland, being spread across 26 teams and comes in addition to the €6 million per year that the FAI receives from the Government. 

It’s hard to disagree with the FAI statement claiming that this is a “crucial step in building the modern, professional academy system.” 

In reality it’s much bigger than that, and while fingers may be pointed on how Ireland found themselves with this black hole that they call their academy system, focus now thankfully turns to resolving it in the long term.   

We have become used to watching disorganised, dysfunctional, football with the men’s national side over the past number of years, but the same adjectives are even more fitting for its organising body who have, even by their own standards, not enjoyed a successful couple of years. 

It’s hard to know where to begin, there was the eight-month search for a new manager while the difficulty finding a permanent solution to the CEO question springs to mind? 

Perhaps it’s the cancellation of their ‘summer soccer’ plan or the semi recent news that they are now seeking ‘voluntary redundancies’ going forward. How about the €40 million debt that the sports association finds itself in? 

You get the point, The FAI desperately needed a win, and credit where credit is due, they have finally got one.  

Even without the full amount of funding originally requested (€4.45m) not being matched, the €3 million will provide crucial full-time roles in 26 academies across the country. 

Before we go any further here it is important to have a brief look at the numbers to reveal just how badly the financial assistance is required. 

The Academy Report Makes For Striking Reading…

An independent academy report, released at the end of August, showed that Ireland’s youth setup trails significantly behind countries ranked 51-100 in the men’s and women’s FIFA rankings. 

Quite frankly the report shows that without government support there would be no fixing the system that relies far too heavily on volunteer coaches, who can’t offer the same contact hours to academy players as the countries international rivals. 

The full 144-page report makes for striking reading, but the most remarkable comparisons are the following: 

• 46% of League of Ireland clubs employ a full-time academy director / 60% for clubs in countries ranked 51-100 

• 4% of clubs here have a full-time head of coaching / 46% in the lower-ranked associations. 

•  0% of League of Ireland clubs have four (or more) full-time academy coaches / 36% of clubs in the 51-100 FIFA-ranked countries. 

It is important to emphasise that once again, this is not data collected from the top teams in international football, but that of those of a supposed similar level or below to Ireland. 

A popular stat amongst Irish soccer fans over the last year it how Croatia, a country smaller than Ireland, boasts 190 full-time club academy staff to Ireland’s 10. 

However, it goes much deeper than that, not only is there plenty of more similar comparisons to be had such as (Poland’s 376 full time academy staff), but more revealing is also the fact that the average LOI’s academy budget is comparable to teams in countries such as Andorra, Estonia or even San Marino. 

The aforementioned report makes clear that financial assistance was Ireland’s only way out of this mess. And with the promise of multi-annual investment, this should be seen as the start of the long road to recovering the countries youth setup. 

€140,000, was planned to each academy under the original €4.45 million proposal, instead now a figure of around €93,000 will be awarded to each of the 26 clubs. 

Those numbers may sound puny, and while for now feels a bit like trying to put out a house fire with nothing but a glass of water, it still will mark an exponential rise in full time academy coaches in the country. 

The judgement will be made on how the negotiations to increasing the funding year-on year progress, it’s expected that the figures will rise before eventually tapering off when the system finds itself in a healthier position. However, if it fails to do so significantly, we may be getting excited about nothing but a small promise. 

It could not have been an easy decision for the government to trust the countries footballing body with this kind of funding given their shortcomings over the last 24 months, going on 20 years. 

It’s something from the outside looking in, that they seem very aware of. With Sport Ireland given control of allocating the majority of the budget and FAI CEO David Courell being keen to stress that this is Irish Footballing matter and not that of the associations. 

Of course, there is other factors crucial to securing this investment, such as the recent success of League of Ireland clubs in player trading and European performances. 

League of Ireland sides have benefited recently from a post-Brexit footballing world, meaning Irish players are unable to join UK clubs before the age of 18. 

Higher fees are being generated for talent now developed in Ireland instead of overseas, namely Mason Melia’s €1.9m move to Tottenham Hotspur and Victor Ozhianvuna’s €2m move to Arsenal, with clauses meaning both fees could be greatly increased. 

This only proves to the decision makers that there is opportunity for some return on investment, along with the more consistent qualification for European competition that we are seeing from top LOI sides. 

However. 

Questions Still Need To Be Asked

While the €3 million received in the budget should be seen, for now, as a success as a, it must become the first step in a long-term plan for the much-needed modernisation of Irish soccer and not just a handout to appease disillusioned soccer fans in the country. 

The facilities question still needs to be addressed, although given a hand in the Large-Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund which will also be increased to €18.7 million, the levels are well below the required standards for a league that would hope to continue with multiple teams in Europe, as it has this season. 

Hans Vander Elst, senior partner and director of football at Double Pass who conducted the audit into Ireland’s academies was critical of this too. 

“Some people are talking about Shamrock Rovers and top infrastructure. My son is playing in Belgium in fifth division; the infrastructure is better.” 

As for future budgets, if the multi-annual commitment is not met to a satisfactory level to Irish soccer fans questions will begin to be asked of funding of projects such as the Ryder Cup or NFL in Ireland. 

An eye watering €58 million has already been contributed to the hosting of the tournament at Adare Manor in 2027, with a further 9 million projected to be committed next year. 

While close to 10 million euro paid to host the NFL at Croke Park will be questioned if future commitments are not met to the improvement and development to turn Irish football into a working industry. 

An although the obvious argument is that the those will provide a significant return on investment, is that not how we got into this situation in the first place?  

It’s perhaps a part of a bigger discussion to be had but Irish soccer culture has been neglected for far too long, instead of this happening years ago we have had to wait for multimillion-euro transfers are being made to get any attention to the problems in the system. 

The sooner we get more consideration into sport in Ireland being seen for its cultural impact rather than just how much money it generates the better. 

Need I even remind you of the disgrace that is the continued funding of Greyhound racing in this country, receiving just under €20 million in this year’s budget. Every year we scratch our heads at these figures while we get much less for sports that is being played all over the country. 

But I guess there is nothing we can do for now but wait and see how this progresses, in the meantime we should see this as a success for The FAI, Irish Football in general and all those instrumental in getting this over the line.