Announcement on sub regional stadia funding to come soon – Lyons

An announcement on funding to upgrade football stadia in Northern Ireland will be made soon, the Stormont Communities Minister has said.

Gordon Lyons said he has been pushing for progress on the delivery of the £36.2 million sub regional stadia fund since he came into office at the end of January following the resurrection of devolved government.

It was originally approved by the Executive in 2011 but has been hit by delays, including two periods of collapse at Stormont.

Appearing at the Assembly’s Communities committee on Thursday, Mr Lyons described the delivery of the regional sub regional stadia programme as a “key element”, adding it is his ambition “to have a lasting legacy of top-class facilities to be enjoyed by communities and clubs in Northern Ireland”.

Mr Lyons responded saying he is aware that clubs have been waiting since 2011, and indicated that an announcement is coming soon.

“You’re absolutely right to mention the length of time that this has taken and the clubs have been waiting for this, that’s why as soon as I came into post I wanted to make sure that we were pushing this forward as quickly as possible,” he said.

“I recognise there’s a huge demand out there. I recognise that £36.2 million does not go anywhere close to meeting the final need that we have. That money has been there for a long time … each month goes by it’s losing its relative value.

Mr Lyons said he will also be asking for additional resources, describing a “longer term programme”.

“What’s really struck me as I visited all of the clubs is that this isn’t just somewhere where premiership or championship teams play on a Saturday,” he said.

“So many of these clubs are used, in some cases, nearly every single day of the week. They are community facilities they’re helping encourage young people get involved in in sport. So I recognise the importance of it, I want to emphasise that and I hope to have an announcement about soon.”