Communities Minister Gordon Lyons has announced that the first offers of financial support have issued to football clubs through the Northern Ireland Football Fund.
Letters of offer for funding to prepare outline business case have been issued to the 20 performance club projects that are being progressed under the Northern Ireland Football Fund’s Performance Programme. Taken together, the letters of offer represent financial support of up to £400,000.
These Letter of Offers represent the first funding awards made through the Fund.
Ten clubs have previously received business case funding from the Football Ground Business Case Development Fund (FGBCDF); these clubs will receive up to £10,000 to update their business cases.
The remaining 10 clubs will receive up to £30,000 to develop a new business case from scratch.
Welcoming the milestone, the Minister said: “When I announced the cohort of football club projects progressing to the next stage of the Northern Ireland Football Fund, I undertook to support clubs so that projects would move forward as quickly as possible.
“I am delighted that these first offers of support have been made. Clubs have waited long enough for this funding to be made available.
“It’s now over to clubs now to develop or finalise their business cases which set out their detailed project proposals, costs and benefits. They will be doing that over the next couple of months, and my officials will be on hand to help them.”
The 10 clubs previously funded under FGBCDF and receiving up to £10,000 of resource funding are:
Ballymena United
Bangor
Carrick Rangers
Cliftonville
Dungannon Swifts
Glenavon
Glentoran
Larne
Loughgall
Newry City
The 10 clubs not previously funded under FGBCDF and receiving up to £30,000 of resource funding are:
Armagh City
Ballinamallard United
Ballymacash Sports Academy
Banbridge Town
Dergview
Lisburn Distillery
Lisburn Rangers
Oxford Sunnyside
Queen’s University
Rathfriland Rangers