FAI seeks €5m grant to upgrade Aviva facilities

The FAI is to seek up to €5 million from the Government’s Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF) in order to fund improvements to facilities at the Aviva Stadium which are required by Uefa ahead of the four Euro 2020 games to be staged here.

The association, which staged an event on Monday to mark the fact that there are 500 days to go before the start of the tournament, is aiming to recruit some 1,400 volunteers for the event which will involve the staging of two of Ireland’s three group games in the event that Mick McCarthy’s team qualifies. Dublin could also host a knockout game between England and Germany depending on how their early results go.

The money sought is understood to be in the €4 million-€5 million range and will apparently be used to upgrade the stadium’s floodlighting, digital big screens and a range of other facilities at what will, by then, be the 10-year-old stadium.

Separately, the pitch at the ground is also scheduled to be replaced during the coming months.

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The Government announced the launch of the LSSIF in November when a “minimum” of €100 million in public funding was committed. FAI chief executive John Delaney had previously confirmed that the association expected to have much of the cost of developments at Glanmire in Cork and Dalymount Park supported through the scheme.

The training centre at Glanmire has a projected cost of €11 million while Dalymount’s redevelopment could cost three times that although the scheme, as unveiled by Dublin City Council in October, is now expected to contain fewer seats for spectators (6,000) but more public facilities, including a library.

The RDS and Páirc Tailteann in Navan, which are both to be upgraded to capacities of more than 20,000 seats, are among the other schemes expected to benefit from the fund.