Antrim: IFA’s withdrawal of training centre branded a mistake

Mr Gourley said there is a shortage of facilities and pitches in the Antrim area that the training centre could have helped ease.

He told BBC News NI his team recently “had to travel to Bangor and south Belfast for a so-called home game” due to a lack of pitches.

The council had previously been told the proposed national training centre would “offer facilities that benefit the wider community and Northern Ireland as a whole”.

Mr Gourley said his team trains at Allen Park, which is more than a mile outside of the town, and that it’s oversubscribed and lacking space.

“Where we train hasn’t enough space for us to play our matches on a Friday night or Saturday morning,” he said.

“Every youth team in Antrim uses it one way or another, there can be as many as 600 or 700 kids looking to use the facilities.”

He added that walking or cycling to Allen Park is “probably too dangerous” for young people while the proposed location of the national training centre “would’ve been perfect”.

“It’s central to Antrim town where a lot of kids would live and local enough that they could get there by riding their bikes or walking.”