IFA submits application for new multi-million pound national football centre in Ballymena

An application has been made to Mid and East Antrim Borough Council regarding a proposed new national football centre by the Irish Football Association (IFA).

The application is a request for an environmental impact assessment determination in relation to the planned facility outside Ballymena, at Fenaghy Road, Galgorm.

The proposed development, which has been described by the IFA, as “multi-million pound, state-of-the-art” will comprise of five outdoor pitches, one indoor pitch, stands, training building and car parking.

The facility is earmarked for a 50-acre site. The IFA has said it is expected to feature “world-class pitches and cutting-edge training facilities supporting both elite and grassroots players”.

An environmental impact assessment is a process undertaken by developers when it is considered that a development proposal may have a significant environmental impact.

The IFA says it has a “long-standing strategic priority to create a facility that will nurture elite talent, support youth development and bolster team performance”.

It is also designed to “serve Northern Ireland’s international squads whilst aiming to support the charitable and community activities of the Irish FA Foundation and marks a bold investment in the future of the game”.

The IFA said that a “range of potential opportunities were explored across the country and following a comprehensive review of all the options, Galgorm was chosen as the most compelling, best-fit opportunity to develop the facility”.

It was stated the facility would “complement the national football stadium at Windsor Park, in Belfast, creating a dual campus set-up to strengthen Northern Ireland’s football infrastructure”.

However, there was an angry reaction among some Antrim and Newtownabbey councillors when a committee was informed in a report to members, in January, that the Irish Football Association’s interest in the development of a national football training centre at a 60-acre site, at Birch Hill Road, in Antrim, had been “officially withdrawn” and that “an alternative preferred site was in development with a private owner”,

Macedon Ulster Unionist Councillor Robert Foster said at the time he was “absolutely dumbfounded”.  He criticised what he described as a “move away to a private developer site” and demanded the IFA comes to the council to “explain itself”.

He proposed the council write to Department for Communities to express its “abject disgust at how the IFA has conducted itself with regard to their fellow stakeholders”, to inquire how much has been spent to date on the project and to seek an assurance public funds will not be available for a private site.

A spokesperson for the IFA said at the time that it was “a matter of commercial confidentiality”.