On Thursday 3rd July, Minister Michael Ring announced the funding allocations under the 2014 Sports Capital grant scheme. Included in his announcements were four grants, totalling over €27,600 to American football in Ireland.
The Irish American Football Association (IAFA) received a grant of €15,000 which is designated for the purchase of training camp equipment and other training aids for the IAFA’s new young player development programme which is due to be launched later this year. The Irish Sports Council has also provided some running costs funding to the new programme.
Three individual IAFA clubs also succeeded in receiving their own grants as follows:
West Dublin Rhinos – €6,375
South Kildare Soldiers – €4,527
Dublin Dragons – €1,704
These grants will be primarily used to purchase equipment which will invariably help these clubs expand and attract new players.
The Sports Capital Grant scheme, is a non-statutory scheme whereby Irish sports clubs and organisations can apply for funding for capital projects e.g. equipment and facilities improvements. The scheme usually opens for applications once every 2-3 years.
IAFA Commissioner Cillian Smith responded to the announcement by saying “we are very happy that the Minister and the Department have decided to invest in the development of American football in Ireland. When the scheme was announced earlier this year, we encouraged individual clubs to put together proposals and now for the first time ever, the Minister has decided to allocate money to individual clubs in addition to funding the IAFA’s own proposal.”