Investing properly in grassroots cannot be ignored in Irish soccer anymore

With a General Election looming, the domestic game has entered political discussion.

It's something that's felt at all levels, from Labour TD Aodhán Ó Ríordáin crediting League of Ireland supporters as a voting bloc after his election to the European Parliament to Minister Malcom Byrne promising €500,000 in grants to help a cash-strapped Dundalk redevelop Oriel Park.

Never before has something felt so real, instead of being an afterthought in a conversation traditionally dominated by stadia and the performance of the national team.

The question now concerns Brexit, and the need to invest in infrastructure, a topic that has been well documented over the rules and regulations following the UK's decision to leave the European Union.

This has put a renewed focus on the League of Ireland, and how facilities need to be made better across the country. And that's only part of a discussion, which has yet to turn to where it all starts; schoolboy and schoolgirl level.

Their issue is finding a place to play, and pitches can be hard to find in a country plagued by bad weather. There's always a fix, or something comes together to make sure that games can take place even if there's a small adjustment to the pre-agreed schedule.

That's what happened last April when the Munster Football Association was forced to close Turner's Cross over the stage of the pitch after a League of Ireland fixture between Cork City and Cobh Ramblers.

The next few weeks were hard, but the clubs involved persevered before a return of competitive football to the venue at the start of May.

That sparked conversations about facilities, centralisation, and how to manage so many games in so many competitions through a calendar year that involves all aspects of the Irish football pyramid.

But what about the schoolboys and schoolgirls, and children just looking to kick a ball around in the evenings before the street lights turn on?

Other countries have looked at it, and invested at the lowest possible level with an eye on international success.

Iceland famously used this approach and their reward was qualification for back-to-back major tournaments during the 2010s. 

They even reached the knockout stages of the 2016 European Championships, and a famous victory over England put them through to the quarter-finals.

INVESTMENT

The ecosystem that helped create this minor miracle for one of the smallest UEFA nations involved prioritising indoor facilities, as Arnar Bill Gunnarsson, Director of Education for the Icelandic Football Association (KSÍ) explained in a 2015 interview.

“We have about seven full-sized indoor football halls, and about 20 to 25 artificial pitches, and about 150 mini-pitches. This means we can play football all year round,” he told These Football Times.

The KSI even give the exact stats in documents issued: “In total, there are 179 full-size pitches in Iceland (natural grass or artificial turf, outdoor or indoor) which means that there are around 1,800 inhabitants in the country for each full-size pitch. In terms of registered players only (23,000), there is one full size pitch in the country for every 128 registered players.” 

This came from investment and sheer political will, but it doesn’t have to be a major operation.

Kids and adults just need somewhere to kick a ball around, and that is a feature of almost every neighbourhood in Paris. 

Those streets in return spawned 30 players that would go on to play for various countries at the 2022 World Cup, with 11 lining out for France in the final against Argentina. There are also icons like Thierry Henry, N'Golo Kante, Paul Pogba, and Riyad Mahrez. 

They are some of the most successful footballers of the modern era, and each one started out on the street with a place to call their own in their neighbourhood.

NOSTALGIA

All of these examples are great because they worked. That's not why they are relevant. 

The thing is that those countries' Football Associations have people an opportunity to play football year-round and tried out new things, instead of relying on what came before.

Ireland has a reliance born out of nostalgia after once seeing the country’s national team compete on the world stage. That was over 30-years ago, and it is time for a new way of thinking. Not because of the time that has elapsed, but the present reality over the forever changing climate.

There will be investment soon, or some form of capital made available, the question is how much and how will things move forward?