Damien Duff: €50m on Casement Park? I'd rather it was spent on academies

Damien Duff has questioned the Irish Government’s decision to grant €50m of grant aid to the Casement Park rebuild, adamant League of Ireland academies are more worthy recipients.

The FAI’s bid to secure the majority of their €863m infrastructure masterplan from state coffers has been hamstrung by governance issues.

They have been asked before the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday morning to be questioned on how they distributed €33m of Covid-19 resilience funding and specific queries around payments that chief executive Jonathan Hill erroneously received for untaken holidays.

Ireland centurion Duff is into his third season as Shelbourne boss but is a vocal proponent of player development stemming from his experience working with Shamrock Rovers, Shels and Ireland underage teams.

The dearth of proper facilities and full-time staff available for teens no longer allowed to join UK clubs until 18 is a major bugbear of his and news on Tuesday that a GAA ground received a meaty handout for the sake of hosting Euro 2028 games had his dander up.

“Will Casement Park bring through footballers?” Duff pondered as he conducted media duties within an hour of the announcement via the Shared Island pot. “Maybe in a roundabout way. Academies for me are where the future of Irish football is.

“50 million ... how many [Euro 2028] games will it host? Four? Great. We’ll go to the toilet four times. I’d rather it was spent on academies.

“It’s not always black and white. Some people would prefer to spend it on stadiums.” 

When pointed out Casement will revert to a GAA ground - bar the odd blockbuster game for Northern Ireland - following the Euros, he reverted to basic principles.

“Exactly. People get p**d off because a lot of stuff comes