‘Derry City want facilities we can be proud of’​ says club chairman

​First team manager Tiernan Lynch, chief executive Sean Barrett, club captain Mark Connolly and winger Michael Duffy were also in attendance as almost 100 supporters turned out for the event in Screen One of the Pennyburn entertainment complex owned by club director Patrick Simpson.

Some of the attendees made the most of the opportunity to voice their concerns and frustrations as a discussion on Lynch's tactics and recent performances threatened to get heated while fans also expressed support and listened intently to how major projects and developments at the club are progressing.

Following the completion of the fantastic £3million North Stand at Brandywell, Mr O'Doherty explained how the club has turned its focus on delivering the long-awaited upgrades to the Mark Farren Stand, floodlights and the planned installation of a new pitch at Brandywell.

The club chairman remains hopeful Derry City Football Club will receive its requested £11.8 million share of the NI Football Fund this summer which will go towards the costs of those upgrades and expressed his frustrations at the delay in securing a 25 year lease of the Brandywell - a slow moving process involving the Department of Communities and council.

"There was £36 million allocated and it's been talked about for 12 years,” began the club chairman. “It's £11.8 million - that's the proposed cost we put in. “There would have to be a contribution. It could be anything between 50 and 90% grant-aided.

"The decision on who will get that will come in July but it may be delayed until August given it is the holiday period. It's gone to the Department of Communities and Minister Gordon Lyons.

"We think that will finish off the stadium and there will be additional facilities. You'll be delighted to know one of the big ticket items on it is replacing the current playing surface," he added.

"The players and Tiernan in particular will be delighted with that. Hopefully we're going to be one of the clubs that are going to be selected.

"It is a bit of a competition but we think we've done a really good proposal. The fact we worked so well with the council won't go unnoticed.

"We said we were going to do something and we did it with the North Stand and hopefully they take that into account when they're judging the competition."

Mr Barrett added Derry’s application was a ‘robust’ one and he’s confident it will be successful.

"We've put in a pretty robust case towards that funding and I'm pretty confident. The vibes I'm getting is that the Brandywell will get done up and hopefully we don't have to rely on any more generosity from this man,” [gestures towards Mr O’Doherty].

Plans are also afoot and talks with Derry City and Strabane District Council continue about acquiring land at Templemore Sports Complex for the club's state-of-the-art Academy base while the club is also looking at potential alternatives at other locations in the city.

"The potential project of a youth academy is still being talked about with the council," continued the chairman. "It's in their hands now to say 'yes' or 'no'. We're looking at Templemore. That's three projects we've mentioned. We've done one [North Stand].

"The other one [Brandywell upgrades] is hopefully going to come to fruition in terms of actually getting started on site maybe early next year if we're successful.

"And then this other one [Academy]- that's a lot of activity for ourselves and the council but it just shows our ambition to get better facilities for our youth teams and our players. Luckily this year the GAA have allowed us to have Owenbeg and the facilities are excellent.

"That's the sort of facilities we as a football club need to be aiming towards, owned by ourselves and not by council where we can be proud of them. “When Tiernan is trying to attract new players we can show them facilities we can be proud of." Mr Barrett added the club would also be hoping to take advantage of funding from the FAI's increased solidarity payments which will go towards the improvement of the club's academy structures which will benefit the whole city.

"The FAI's solidarity payments have increased dramatically this year to help with youth development and we'll be getting a good slice of that.

"That's why geographically it probably works better because we're closer to the border and it makes it more accessible for people from the south as you know there's a lot of people from Inishowen who play for Derry as well in the younger age groups.

“We're working on that in the background. We are getting funded from them [Irish government] as well.

"We're hoping the complex will have at least two or three pitches. Not just for Derry City Football Club. Yes, it will be for our academy but the Foyle Cup and stuff like that will also benefit.

"The facilities in this city are an absolute disgrace. Luckily we have a man beside me here [Mr O'Doherty] who is willing to put money in to do that. It's not just for the club, it's for the city.

"We're second class in so many ways and that's why we're trying our best, not just for the club but for everybody, to get better facilities because at this moment in time they're not fit for purpose in this city."

Club Director Peter Wallace expressed his frustrations at the lack of progress despite several meetings with council.

“The city needs it. The club needs it and we can't let anyone stand in our way to do that now.

“The club have already spent £3million on a stand and we're doing everything we can but it's frustrating to get movement from the council. We had our first meeting six weeks ago. We had another meeting yesterday and there's been absolutely no progress.

We're doing everything we can.” When asked about a potential timeframe for the aforementioned projects, Mr O'Doherty was hoping to make progress sooner rather than later with the current state of the Brandywell pitch in particular a real concern.

"We want to move really quickly on these projects. There's so many moving parts in it. We're depending on the Department of Communities, the council but you can rest assured there will be no delay from us. Whatever part we have to contribute financially it will be available straight away.”

"The one thing I would say to the Department of Communities and the council is that Derry City won't hold anything up and we've shown we can do these projects with them."