Clubs urged to be patient as they seek vital Covid funding

A RESILIENCE fund announced by the Government for struggling sports clubs is expected to be over-subscribed as the difficulties created by Covid-19 continue to plague Irish sport.

This is despite tomorrow marking the return of sport as part of the Government’s quickened reopening of society after weeks of lockdown.

The chance to resume activities will be seized on by organisations and participants all over the country, but the problems that have been caused by the suspension of all sport for three months have left many clubs fearing for their future.

Government funding totalling €70 million was announced last week to support the industry, with much of the attention it received focussing on the €40 million of it allocated for the three main field sports that dominate the Irish sporting scene.

But Mary O’Connor, the chief executive of the Federation of Irish Sport, says a sports club resilience fund, valued at up to

€15 million, will be vital to restoring the strength of grassroots sports.

‘I would expect it to be oversubscribed, and going on the experiences of our colleagues in the UK, when these types of funds became available they were oversubscribed,’ she says.

‘That tells its own story. It tells you about the challenges out there. But this is not grants for grants sake; clubs have to demonstrate the need.

‘We want to ensure they have access to working capital, to get them going again. Some sports have been in hibernation, and some sports are in the middle of their season, and some might have lost their season altogether.’

While the challenges differ, a common threat stems from a calamitous loss of revenue.

Clubs rely on gate receipts for income, but also on other streams such as local lottos and from running summer camps.

While clubs will be hopeful of restoring these in some form over the coming weeks, in the short term many face bills and loan and mortgage repayments.

O’Connor asked them to be patient as the criteria for the fund is worked out by the Department of Sport along with Sport Ireland.

The wider issue of the funding of Irish sport looks certain to become topical again as a new Government faces daunting choices ahead of its first budget in October.

The cost to the country of dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic is expected to run to tens of billions of euro, and cutbacks will be inevitable at some point in the lifetime of the Government.

Sport has historically been an early and easy cut to make.

A ten-year national sports policy was launched in July 2018, and among its most notable commitments was a doubling of the annual funding to Irish sport, to €220 million.

O’Connor is hopeful that the value of sport to society generally is recognised if and when funding becomes a discussion point.

‘We are delighted that sport is being recognised as a sector that is really important to the country, not just economically but socially as well, and that the Government saw fit to put that package together,’ she says.

‘This is an investment in the health of the nation as well.

‘We have to be cognisant (of the challenges facing the economy) but there is a cost to the Exchequer of €1.5 billion a year due to physical inactivity and obesity.

‘If you look at investing in sport, that will have a direct impact on that. If you invest in sport and physical activity, you invest in the prevention, rather than the cure.’