Northern Ireland’s Sport NI has caught crackers for returning £1m ($1.3m) of underutilised funding to its parent body, the Department for Communities. The unspent budget was available for the last two years to be spent on enriching sports facilities in the region, but that did not materialise. The money could have been allocated to at least 40 clubs or could have gone towards small items such as balls, bibs, or boxing gears. The move has been widely criticised by an array of sports clubs in Northern Ireland because of the possible improvements that could have been made with the funding.
Chair of Armagh City Football Club, Aidan Murphy, said he was “sure there was shock and horror within many clubs” as they discovered that the funds for sport had been lost. While Cathal Óg Mullan, treasurer of Glenullin Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) club, called it “unforgivable”. Both Armagh City and Glenullin GAA had recently benefited from Sport NI’s Building Better Sports Facilities programme. Aidan Murphy revealed that up to 40 clubs in the region could have benefitted from the money.
Speaking to the BBC, Richard Archibald, the interim chief executive officer of Sport NI, called it “disappointing” that the funds were returned. He explained that a shift in emphasis happened within the running sports programmes in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and “there wasn’t the full utilisation as we would have wanted”. Furthermore, Sport NI failed to meet almost 50% of its business plan objectives and is working through arrears of outstanding National Lottery accounts.
The chair of Armagh City Football Club, Aidan Murphy, said that his club was “initially turned down” for the money in 2021, put on a waiting list before succeeding 15 months later. Mr. Murphy unveiled that more women were interested in joining the club since the Women’s Euro 2022 competition and there was constant demand for better facilities
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