Daniel Carey
Castlebar
FAI Chief Executive John Delaney hopes the €100,000 being made available to soccer clubs in Mayo to mark the county’s hosting of the association’s AGM will leave a lasting legacy. The money, which will be awarded in the form of grants under a Club Support Scheme, will assist improvement initiatives at club grounds. Clubs are being invited to apply for funding by June 13, and an FAI Honorary Treasurer Eddie Murray will chair the assessment panel charged with deciding where the money goes.
“If you leave €100,000 in the county, matched to the funding that the clubs are going to put up and the government funding, I think it’ll leave a great legacy in terms of infrastructure, which is the key to the promotion of any sport,” Delaney told The Mayo News after the official launch of the AGM took place in the Mayo County Council chamber last week.
“When I played, we togged out in cars and without proper shower facilities.
“That is becoming unacceptable now and becoming less and less [common]. The infrastructure has improved hugely all across Ireland, and particularly in Mayo.”
The FAI CEO added that there is ‘a fair chance’ that Republic of Ireland manager, Giovanni Trapattoni, and his assistants, Marco Tardelli and Liam Brady, will be in Mayo for ‘part of the week’ leading up to the AGM. Delaney noted that many people from the county had represented the national team at underage level, and said he had no doubt that a Mayo man would play for the senior side one day.
The FAI are planning a Festival of Football in the days running up to the event, which has been fixed for Saturday, July 26 in Breaffy House Hotel.
Details will be announced over the coming months, but Delaney has promised ‘inclusive’ activities that will ‘celebrate the game’.
This will include inter-cultural events, women’s football, Football for All (for disabled athletes), Soccer Tots (aimed at small children), the opening of pitches, the disbursement of grants and so-called Legends Nights are all in the pipeline, along with inflatable pitches which will be seen on streets or in parks.
The delegates’ night, which will be held on the Friday night, will see the Club of the Year award announced, along with volunteers’ awards.
“People in Mayo can expect to see us everywhere throughout the county,” Delaney added. “Before last year’s AGM in Kerry, we explored every part of the county where there was a football infrastructure, and with 5,000 registered players in Mayo, the infrastructure is very good. Mayo would be very well regarded, and when Mayo applied to host the AGM, everyone felt it would be … a genuine reward for the fantastic work that’s being done in the county.”
