O'Byrne's big plans for sports arena "still very much alive'

Proposed League of Ireland soccer club in Meath remains central part of broader vision

Former Football Association of Ireland chief Bernard O'Byrne says the aim of setting up a League of Ireland club based in Meath continues to be a realistic prospect despite the fact that no major investor has yet rowed in behind the project which could cost up to €7.5 million.

In June 2022 O'Byrne, indicated to the Meath Chronicle that a League of Ireland club based in Meath could be operational "within a five to 10-year framework."

However the formation of the soccer club would, O'Byrne envisages, be just a part of broader plan to construct a "Sports and Cultural Centre" or "Meath Arena" which would benefit the wider community. The Arena would be the home of the football club - Royal Meath FC - and be much more besides.

As part of the plan the Meath Arena will be "a commercial, cultural and sporting entity that will generate its own revenues."

It would be suitable for a wide range of events including concerts, cultural, college and school events, exhibition, trade shows, conferences, high performance events. It would enclude facilites such as an indoor running track and extensive gym facilities, car parking, floodlit 4G soccer pitch.

The Arena would, by staging such events, generate a revenue to sustain Royal Meath FC and a new League of Ireland Soccer Academy. It is also envisaged the Arena could be "a hybrid" of the 3 Arena and RDS and cover an area of 15 to 20 acres.

Despite widespread scepticism surrounding the concept the former CEO of the FAI and later Basketball Ireland, has pushed ahead with his plans.

"The project is still very much alive. We are still working on it," O'Byrne insists.

"We are still looking for an investor, we had advanced talks quite substantially with two parties but both of them decided that they couldn't go ahead so that's where we are in. In terms of the football side of things we got enormous support from the clubs around the county but the other side of it all is to get investors in."

Recently the FAI indicated that they would be starting up a tier three League of Ireland division and invited interested parties to put forward their applications. At this stage Royal Meath FC is not among that list of applications.

"We are still working on it but I don't want to mislead anyone into thinking that we are nearly there because it's a tough old path trying to get somebody to invest fairly significant amounts, but we are still working on it."

The amount of funding needed for the Centre is "a minimum of €5 million" but most likely up to €7.5. "That's what you need in terms of finance for what we want in relation to the ground or home venue required," O'Byrne added.

During his term as FAI CEO O'Byrne was firmly behind the setting up of Eircom Park but, in the face of strong opposition from some within the Association, that project fell by the wayside. Because of that experience O'Byrne has considerable knowledge of what is required.

O'Byrne - who lives in Athboy for some years now and has become closely involved with the local soccer team Athboy Celtic - says the clubs in Meath are very supportive of the idea of a League of Ireland outfit based in the county.

"All of the clubs are very much in favour of setting up a new club initially at u-14 and u-16 levels, the we'd have a game-plan to have a League of Ireland side maybe within three or four years. There is tremendous support among the clubs in the county."

The Athboy Celtic official says that instead of talented young players emerging from u-16 level going to clubs in Longford, Dublin or wherever they would be part of a Meath identity - namely Royal Meath FC.

"A lot of (local) clubs are going to lose players anyway and they see it as a terrible waste that those players can't go to a Meath club," O'Byrne added.

Originally Athboy was mooted as the possible location for any new League of Ireland identity but that was broadened to a list of 10 other locations in the Royal County. That number, O'Byrne adds, has now being whittled down to four possible venues as the home for the ambitions plan.