Sports in Northern Ireland set for £8m funding boost

Sports body, Sport NI, is investing more money into sport than ever before through its £8m Sports Systems Investment programme.

Funded through National Lottery, the programme supports 34 sports governing bodies to grow and thrive and to retain and increase their memberships.

The investment supports the whole sporting system, from community and club level to high performance and elite athletes competing on the world stage.

It has a focus on making sport more inclusive and accessible for everyone in Northern Ireland, supporting sports to address the inequalities within the sector and provide more opportunities for underrepresented groups including women and girls, people with a disability and those living in areas of high social deprivation.

Richard Archibald, Interim CEO, Sport NI said: “Our National Lottery funded Sports Systems Investment programme is making an incredible impact on the sport and physical activity sector in Northern Ireland.

“At Sport NI we believe in the power of sport to change lives, and we are working with governing bodies to ensure they have the resources and expertise they need to grow their sports and support their athletes to compete among the best in the world.

“We set an ambitious target to increase sports club membership to 500,000 by 2027-28 and we are already well on our way, reaching 433,000 last year, an increase of 47% from 2017/18. Thanks to this current investment clubs will grow their memberships even further this year.”

Communities Minister Gordon Lyons added: “Ensuring that sport and physical activity is inclusive and accessible to all is a key aspect of ‘Active Living’ the Sport and Physical Activity Strategy for Northern Ireland, which aims to get more people, more active, more often.

“In line with this, I welcome the additional funding for Sport NI’s Sports Systems Investment Programme. This significant investment will benefit our sports clubs, athletes and communities and contribute to the achievement of our collective goals to grow and promote sport.”

In 2023-24, 19 Sports had performances at World and European Level, including 28 Medals, 30 Top 8s, 22 Top 16s and 25 Top 32s and medal hopes are high for this year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris.

Sport NI’s Sports Systems Investment programme is enabling sports to develop athletes to reach the highest levels of their sport and compete for international medals.