Sports Capital Grants - Minister for Sport, Dr McDaid recently announced £3,000,000 grants for ground development under the of Sports Capital Grants scheme. The money was split between soccer, rugby and GAA. Soccer got a total of £1,400,000, some of which will be spent as detailed here.

Shamrock Rovers will be putting their half million towards phase 1 of their new stadium which is under construction in Tallaght (pictured in magazine), Dublin’s largest suburb. Phase 1 includes a 3000 all-seater cantilever stand (with dressing rooms, club offices and spectator facilities to the rear of the stand), floodlights and an 800 space car park. The “Hoops” hope to play the first games there in October 2001.

For Longford Town the money will go towards the installation of 5,600 additional seats at Flancare Park. Over the summer Longford have installed seats on three sides of the ground to turn the ground into a 6,500 all seater venue able to host games for this season’s UEFA Cup campaign. Future plans include additional spectator facilities and a number of all-weather training pitches on the site. Bohemians plan to install additional seats at Dalymount Park and hope to have 8,200 seats by September, Sligo Rovers plan to install additional seats in their recently built stand and Bray are set to begin work on the continued development of the railway side of their ground soon. Home Farm will be putting their share towards plans for a £3 million redevelopment of Whitehall, plans for which include an 800-seat stand and a new clubhouse.

One club unhappy with the grants announced were St Patrick’s Athletic who received full planning permission for a new 2,600-seater stand at the Inchicore end of the ground only days before the St. Francis merger was announced. St. Pats had applied for £3.2m towards this new stand and were hoping to start building immediately if their grant application was successful. However St. Pats expressed dismay when the grants were announced and they did not receive any funding. It is now unclear how this stand will be funded and when building will commence.

St. Pats and St Francis merger - Recently two Dublin clubs St. Patrick’s Athletic FC and St. Francis F.C. announced that the clubs were merging together to form a new club that is to known as St. Patrick’s Athletic (incorporating St. Francis) F.C.

In 1990 St. Francis were the first non league team since the late 1920’s reach the FAI Cup final. Then in 1996 they were elected to the FAI National League from the Leinster Senior League. However since entering the league St. Francis struggled continuously near the bottom of the first division and never repeated their cup run of 1990.

St. Francis home ground was John Hyland Park, located in Baldonnell on the outskirts of Dublin, 10 miles from the Liberties, the clubs heartland in Dublin city centre. John Hyland Park is a basic and neat ground consisting of a walled floodlight pitch with covered terracing on one side of the pitch. The pitch is regarded as probably the finest pitch in the league and is regularly used for training by the Irish national team prior to international fixtures.

The new club will play first team games at St. Pats ground at Richmond Park, Inchicore whilst John Hyland Park will be used for reserve team fixtures and training / youth academy. However a group of St. Francis fans dismayed at the decision to merge with St. Pats without consulting the fans have vowed to resurrect the club again under the name St. Francis back in the Leinster Senior League. It remains to be seen where they will play if this happens.