Gavin Cooney NEW SPORTS MINISTER Thomas Byrne has defended the government’s investment in Irish football.
“I’m going to look at that and take his comments very, very seriously”, said the minister. “His calculations, I’m not going to argue with, but they do go back to 2000 and in the last number of years there has been huge support for football. The FAI got significant support in their darkest days from the government when we could have just said ‘No, we can’t fund this, that is it.’ We funded it because of thee grassroots right around the country.
“When we see the changing Ireland as well, a lot of people have moved to Ireland, and football is a global sport that is more and more popular. I think we’re going to just have to step up to the plate.”