IFA Play Down Windsor Park Redevelopment Concerns

The Irish Football Association (IFA) are confident that the redevelopment of Windsor Park will be on schedule and to budget.

Sports Minister Carál Ní Chuilín had warned the IFA the £26m funding that is needed for the project will not be released until the IFA has ‘appropriate governance,’ which led to concerns the redevelopment would fall through.

However, IFA CEO Patrick Nelson (pictured) said: “I’m confident we’ll be able to get to a place where DCAL (the Department for Culture, Arts and Leisure) are happy and we’re happy.”

Ní Chuilín’s concerns arose when Amateur League official David Martin was unanimously backed for the deputy president role at the IFA.

This was just three years after he was forced to resign from the position after failing a suitability test.

The IFA removed the requirement of the suitability tests for senior official roles earlier in the year.

Ní Chuilín said in Assembly: “I need to be assured that appropriate governance and accountability structures have been maintained.

“Until that happens, I can’t sign off on any agreement.”

However, Nelson took the statement as good news and commented: “As the guardians of public money, they need to be assured that our governance is sound. We’re working with them to give them those assurances.

“We’re confident we have very strong governance at the Association. We have come a long way on those sort of issues, we’ve had a number of independent reviews done and we’re classed as being satisfactory.”

The redevelopment of Windsor Park will be completed by the middle of 2015 according to Nelson, who also said the capacity would be at least 10,000 throughout the construction work.

Two new stands will be built which will increase the capacity from 12,000 to 18,000.