O’BYRNE CALLS ON AID FOR CLUBS AT BREAKING POINT

BASKETBALL Ireland CEO Bernard O’Byrne believes that both the sporting and social fabric of the country will crumble if sport organisations do not receive urgent financial assistance from the Government. The Federation of Irish Sport yesterday called for a resilience fund to be set up immediately in order to help sporting organisations who are struggling financially during the Covid-19 pandemic. The group issued their plea on behalf of the 81 national governing bodies and 29 local sports partnerships they represent. To illustrate the stark reality, O’Byrne (right) said that Basketball Ireland have surveyed the 48 National League clubs and almost all of them felt they would struggle to restart in terms of finance and some of them will go out of business. ‘Gate receipts will be down due to expected restrictions and the late start to the season, but the major impact will be to sponsorships. Local businesses are signalling great difficulty in honouring agreements,’ O’Byrne pointed out. ‘It is highly likely that some clubs will cease to operates. Overall, urgent meaningful government financial assistance for sport is crucial. Otherwise, the fabric of sport, and indeed society, will be fractured and may crumble in many cases. ‘The National Basketball

Arena in Tallaght has been closed since March 13, with all the income immediately ceased and bookings over the coming months cancelled. This represents a huge hit on the income of Basketball Ireland and to exacerbate things further, our insurance company insists that the ‘business disruption’ clause in our policy does not cover the loss of earnings,’ he added. Basketball is not an isolated case with the Federation of Irish Sport suggesting that many of their member organisations have lost up to 70 per cent of their revenue in the past 10 weeks due to inactivity during lockdown. ‘The fact is that many of our 13,000 clubs and sporting organisations may not survive the financial impact of Covid19 without financial assistance now. We are calling on the Government to introduce a Resilience Fund for sport immediately,’ read a statement from the deferation. They also pointed out that as an industry, sport in Ireland employs 40,000 people and accounts for €2.7 billion in consumer spending, as well as generating €500 million for the tourism industry. The federation says similar funds have been established in England and New Zealand to help out struggling sport organisations. Basketball Ireland are not alone in their struggles, Athletics Ireland have suffered a €1.5 million loss while gymnastics Ireland CEO Ciaran Gallagher saying they have faced a €2.4 million loss since the lockdown while predicting most clubs will need financial help.