Arson at Riverside Stadium: 'It is just sad when you see people out to destroy things'

The Fire & Rescue Service were tasked to the scene on Thursday night following after the alert was raised over a fire which had been started at the Drumahoe site.

A spokesperson for the NI Fire & Rescue Service confirmed on Friday morning that they were tasked to the scene off Glenshane Road at 8.24pm on Thursday, with two appliances from Crescent Link station attending the incident.

A NIFRS spokesperson said: “Firefighters were called to reports of a fire on Glenshane Road, Drumahoe, Derry/Londonderry. Firefighters entered the property and extinguished the fire.

"The cause of the fire is believed to have been deliberate ignition and the incident was dealt with by 10.27pm.”

Institute F.C. was forced to relocate after their Drumahoe ground was destroyed in the floods of August 2017, and the club was later unable to return after an infestation of Japanese Knotweed was discovered.

The football club applied to the council to have the stadium demolished in 2022 and members at the time heard that it was intended to reduce waste, recycle materials and salvage and re-use material on site where possible.

The club, which currently plays fixtures at the Brandywell, are hoping to relocate to a new permanent home at Clooney Park West with work ongoing on an application towards this end now. Institute F.C. have already been named as the preferred tenant for the new site.

Andrew Russell, vice chairman of Institute F.C., said that as part of this relocation plan, the club were hoping to recycle what they could from their old site at Drumahoe.

He added that a required environmental destruction plan to facilitate the reuse and dismantling of the Riverside infrastructure was in the final stages of being signed off.

Reacting to the fire, Mr Russell said that this was the latest of numerous such incidents since the floods.

“Our aspiration is to be get the grounds removed and hopefully this will not affect anything we can reuse at the new location,” he said, adding:

"There are so many people working hard to keep the club continuing and it is just sad when you see people out to destroy things and still causing destruction after all these years.”