Gavin last week met our new sports ministers for the first time, who told him that the government’s promised funding for professional football academies is ‘not imminent.’

The comment caused despair in football circles, and the necessity for his money is the centre of this week’s episode. Sinéad and Gavin delve into the minister’s comments and wonder why they are so slow to follow through on their promises, before Gavin give the reality on the ground as to why the funding is already too late.

While there have been headline successes like Mason Melia’s record transfer from St Pat’s to Tottenham, the reality is the academy system is not close to replacing elite player development opportunities that have been lost to Irish kids since Brexit. Gavin has to stats to prove this, and they show that the question you should be asking yourself about our national teams is not ‘How have we become so bad?’, but ‘How are we still so good?’

Sinéad probes the broader questions: Is it really appropriate for taxpayer money to fund the development of a small number of elite athletes? And can the FAI be trusted with this money anyway?

Plus, there’s some listener feedback on last week’s topic of whether the sports media should play a role in helping the national team, and does Irish rugby get softer media coverage than other sports?

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This week’s episode of The42 FM is brought to you by An Post Money.

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