Institute Chairman left devastated by NI Football Fund omission

The Drumahoe club saw their Riverside Stadium destroyed by floods in 2017 and have since been using Brandywell Stadium as a base while they developed ambitious plans for a Waterside Community Hub stadium at Clooney Park West along Derry's Limavady Road.

Those plans suffered a severe blow when Communities Minister Gordon Lyons revealed on Thursday that Institute - alongside both Derry City and Coleraine football clubs - would not be receiving any funding from the £36million pound government programme, news which Mr Anderson described as devastating.

"I am in the depths of despair," the 'Stute Chairman told Radio Foyle's The Mark Patterson Show, "I am devastated; devastated for the club, devastated for the supporters and devastated for the Waterside in general. It is hard to get your head around it at this moment in time. I am feeling very disappointed and it will take a while to process the information and get our heads around it."

Institute, like both Derry City and Coleraine, had applied for Tier 3 of the three-tiered funding which was for projects in excess of £6million with Mr Anderson explaining the decision to ask for a £14million share as the only real option available to the club who have been without a permanent home now for eight years.

"We will reflect on it (the decision) but when we set out this vision we had the Waterside community in mind and we didn't believe we could deliver what the Waterside community is entitled to really on less than £6million," he explained, "Less than £6million would maybe have given us a football pitch, a stand and some changing rooms but it would not have provided the vision that we had for the greater Waterside community.

"We put in for what it would cost us to build what we had designed. It was £11million and then the DSC insisted we add another 30% optimism bias on top of that so I think it was £14million at the end.

"Nobody knew what the entire fund was because there was £36million ring fenced but if you look at what was announced, the total is in excess of £80million. The 20 projects that were taken forward in the priority cohort add up to over £80million.

"Now, if the Minister can deliver that then that's great for football, my hat's off to him. If £36 million has now magically turned into £82million, then that's brilliant for football; but it's devastating for us."

Mr. Anderson said the club would remain at The Ryan McBride Brandywell for the foreseeable future but admitted the denial of funding put the club's financial future at risk.

"A club that is 120 years old, one of the oldest clubs in the country; definitely the oldest club in the north west: what do we do now going forward?" asked the Institute Chairman.

"Well, we need to have a look at it, we need to chat with the Department for Communities to see what their perception is in terms of need. I would have thought the need, both footballing need and community need, were really high so I don't really understand the process. But we will sit down and talk to them going forward.

"It is a strange one and particularly upsetting. It's been 10 years since the Riverside was flooded. We've had First Ministers up, we've had Ministers of Finance up, Ministers of the Community up and lots of positive talking but at the end of the day we need to sit down and look at what our strategy was, how we are going to ensure that the club stays alive because sustainability is a real issue for us.

"Finance going forward; if the future isn't clear, what are you aiming for? We have to revisit where we are and what we can do. More than ever we need to the support of our local community, our local council, our local commercial businesses, more than ever now.

"I'm concerned about the young people of the city. Where is the future for them at the higher levels of football? I am concerned about the Waterside. I really have too much to think about in terms of what the negatives would be if Institute Football Club went to the wall so I'm not going to let that happen."