Mixed messages emerging from politicians have fuelled a sense of frustration among awaiting clubs, not just with the Government who’d indicated support but also an association whose reputation has been tarnished by some glaring missteps. The FAI’s Academy manager Will Clarke presented the final details of the proposal for funding the 26 academies, male and female, to the Department of Sport last September. What followed was a request and grant towards verifying the granular costs of each club’s needs. A tender process to appoint the auditors is to complete next week with a report due to the powerbrokers by August 15. The October budget would appear to be the milestone for an announcement but the changed economic outlook, on foot of the tariffs on exports to US, will underpin all decisions around exchequer expenditure. Under the FAI’s 11-year model, the €8m yearly amount will taper off beyond the peak period in the belief clubs will be sustainable from transfer fees of graduates. The breakdown is 81 percent directly to clubs, the majority of which is for human resources such as salaries of coaches, administrators and players. There’s very little left for defraying the heavy rental costs shelled out by clubs but the expectation is for them to deal with operational costs. Men’s Premier Division clubs in February received €288,000 of Uefa Solidarity funding, with the balance of around €80,000 due in the summer. “We get it that people are frustrated, we’re all frustrated, but to be fair to the government this is effectively a new fund,” said Clarke about the patience of clubs being tested. “August 15 is a hard deadline but we’re time critical here. That’s why we need to appoint the auditors and recruit a new executive. “Clubs all know this is happening so there will be a preparation period of four to five weeks. “Then we’ll have boots on the ground, visiting the 26 academies around the country, coming back with the report, benchmarking against other countries, handing it over to other stakeholders like the (FAI) National League Committee, the FAI board, Government, Sport Ireland and the Department of Sport.” Despite the various delays – Taoiseach Micheál Martin first spoke about funding academies in May 2021 – Clarke insists the authorities are preaching calm. They’ve been dealing with Sport Ireland’s Paul McDermott, high performance director, and Nora Stapleton, former Irish rugby player and director of strategy. “We all want this done yesterday but the key to this going forward is communication,” stressed Clarke, addressing suggestions clubs have been kept out of the loop on high-level interactions. “When you communicate and you keep people in the loop, letting them know what’s going on and when you feed back into them. “We all want the same thing here and I think we’re all on board. They know we need to get this right because, look, this can’t fail. “It’s more important that we lay solid foundations and this stands the test of time as opposed to thinking: ‘Do you know what? We’re under pressure here from the clubs, we don’t want to lose them or we’re under pressure from the media’. “That is important but it’s not the most important thing. The most important thing is that we get this right. “There is no guarantees for anybody in this. We’re obviously working with clubs and with government to secure that funding but there are no guarantees.” Chiming with previous annual briefings, Clarke warned of the ramifications if this area continues to be neglected. “At one stage in the women’s game against Greece last week there were only four Irish-born players on the pitch. That will become more regular going forward, absolutely. “We’re going to continue to struggle and basically regress. That’s being honest. “Even looking at the senior men’s international team, the impact of Brexit hasn’t even reached there. “To be fair to all of the parties that we met and all of the politicians, when we lay out the issues as we see them and the problems that we’re facing and looking into, there is nobody that would disagree that something needs to be done in that regard. "We’re just focused on making that happen.”