The foundation, The Pitch understands, is set to be overseen by outgoing Chairman of the FAI Roy Barrett, either directly or through associates of his company Castlegate Investments.

The money it hopes to raise will consist of a mix of increased five-year tranches of Department of Sport capital payments, and a slice up of betting tax, which the association is confident it can take from racing.

As revealed in detail by the Irish Examiner this week, the fund will be made up of 80% exchequer and public monies, and propped up through €170m worth of Uefa and Fifa grants.

The ambitious plan is being led by Barrett, CEO Jonathan Hill and board member Robert Watt, who also happens to have access to the highest reaches of Government.

So why is the FAI so confident the plan will work?

A number of external consultants have been working on the project and within the association to ready itself for the establishment of the Ireland Football Foundation.

Many of these outside experts have been brought in by Barrett, a wealth manager, former stockbroker and Castlegate CEO and a chairman who announced his resignation from the FAI in January.

While senior political figures – public representatives and advisors – say the FAI plan will not receive the cash it is seeking, Barrett cannot be staking his legacy and future football business interests on a project that has no legs.

While the Chairman has failed to oversee a partnership with a headline sponsor during his near four-year tenure at the FAI, he is confident that this investment plan will work, and that comfort comes through Robert Watt.

The Secretary General at the Department of Health has been politically strategising Barrett’s masterplan for some time, and clearly has identified a route to funding through a forecasted €18 billion Government surplus for next year.

Indeed Watt and the FAI Board are so confident of success that its football foundation plan is in the late stages of development, and comes at a time when the association is back negotiating with the Department of Sport for a multi-year extension of its 2020 bailout.

For the plan to work, the FAI will need an equivalent increase of sports capital and equipment funding from €5.3m to €45m per annum, all packed into three five-year investment tranches of almost €225m each.

While that suggestion has been described as “tone-deaf and ill-advised” by a senior politician, it might work if the organisation achieves its highly sought-after cut from betting taxation - which Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has already rejected.

Those responsible for launching today’s Facility Investment Vision and Strategy includes Barrett, Hill, and Watt and a number of external consultants.

So how did the group come up with a number of €863m, and is it an accurate figure?

The most certain and strongest piece of work has come through a gap analysis survey of all grassroots/club facilities – which is calculated at €426m.

It then leaned on estimates and approximate costs of getting every LOI ground up to UEFA CAT 3 standard – the Aviva Stadium is CAT 4 – along with the building of academies – coming to a second investment total of €370m.

An additional €47m is needed for the upgrade and improvement of the national training centre at Abbotstown.

This brings us to €843m with presumably a €20m surplus remaining – with the final total working out at €863, which the FAI wants 60 per cent funded by the exchequer, 20 per cent through local partnerships and the final 20 per cent through Uefa and Fifa grant payments.

The fund will then be managed through the Ireland Football Foundation, which is an idea borrowed from the UK – the only problem is it undermines the Government’s capital funding programme, SCEP.

The Department of Sport confirmed to The Pitch that last year it distributed a record €166.6m from SCEP for all sports, and it will soon publish advice on the process for applicants to apply for this year’s fund – which makes the timing of the FAI plan interesting.

One area which is causing some discomfort within politics and beyond is the presence of a secretary general at the heart of a drive to achieve hundreds of millions of public investment.

“When you look at the personnel that are calling for this, a secretary general seeking exchequer funds, to favour one sporting organisation over other codes, then you have an issue,” a senior politician told us.

Robert Watt has clearly been told that there are no issues and he is not breaching any of the Standards in Public Office (SIPO) rules – which lightly oversees impartiality and conflicts of interest within politics and public service.

But another political source, a senior Government advisor doesn’t see it like this.

“Robert Watt is a Sec Gen, and yet he’s strategising a route to exchequer funding, something which cannot be an impartial exercise, particularly when favouring one sport over all others,” said the insider.

And that is another key question – how GAA, rugby, racing, and all sports react to any favour being shown by Government to an association which has been generously supported since the 2019 FAI crash.

With so many unknowns, the detail of the richest investment project in Irish sport, will make for a fascinating reveal.

Champions League's biggest financial mismatch

This weekend’s Champions League final in Istanbul is the most uneven finale in the recent history of the competition.

On one side you have the richest football club in the world, accused of breaking financial rules by the Premier League, with a recorded revenue of €731m.

And their opponents, with a staggering differential of €423m less, is Inter Milan with commercial, match-day and broadcast earnings of €308.4m.

The most accurate measurement to assess the value of both clubs comes from the Deloitte Football Money League, which demonstrates the sheer difference in values.

Under Commercial Revenue, Manchester City’s income was €373m for 2022 against Inter Milan’s €87m, while in broadcast income, City earned €294m while Inter gained €177m.

Matchday earnings brought in €44m for Internationale against the Manchester side’s €64m.

In the area of transfer income and spending, another demonstration of power can be seen between both clubs.

For the last calendar year, City spent €176.4m on players while taking in €102.1m in sales, achieving a net transfer balance of -€74.3m.

With Inter Milan those numbers are almost reversed with €185.2m coming through transfer income, with an expenditure of €116m, resulting in a profit of €69.2m.

Values which aren’t included in the Deloitte report, like record transfer buys by both clubs, shows City leading the way again - €116m for Jack Grealish in 2021 against Inter’s €80m for Romelu Lukaku in 2019.

And finally, let’s look at club sponsorship – one of the key areas where Manchester City is being investigated by the Premier League.

City’s 10-year deal with Emirates is worth €464m, while Inter Milan have been without a headline commercial partner since April, after shirt sponsor DigitalBits failed to pay any of an agreed €25m sponsorship for the season.

Why Jay Monahan must be removed from PGA

The future of PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan is no longer tenable following the most duplicitous turnaround in sport.

Monahan oversaw the PGA Tour’s suddenly announced collaboration with LIV Golf on Tuesday, in a move which has alienated everyone from Tiger Woods to Rory McIlroy, and most terribly, the victims of 9/11.

Last year Monahan co-opted the 9/11 families in its stance against the Saudi-backed operation, only to abandon them this week.

In a statement following the LIV announcement of a collaboration between the PGA Tour, LIV and DP World Tour, 9/11 Families United warned: “Make no mistake – we will never forget.” 

“The PGA and Monahan appear to have become just more paid Saudi shills, taking billions of dollars to cleanse the Saudi reputation so that Americans and the world will forget how the Kingdom spent billions of dollars before 9/11 to fund terrorism, spread their vitriolic hatred and finance al Qaeda and murder our loved ones.”