Eoin Sheahan

Just one other thing that I wanted to ask you about was just on, again, going back to the budget last year, because I think it's the first time I've spoken to you since then, just the €3 million allocated to this year's budget for League of Ireland academies.

I'm sure there's a lot of work happening in the background on that.

What's your understanding of the latest on all of that?

And it being ranked as the second most popular sport in the Sports Monitor today, drilling only personal exercise or just going to the gym.

Yet across Ireland, our pools are either closing their doors or are beyond repair, has been the feedback.

So I guess people are saying they're swimming, but they're doing it out in the sea.

And the access to pools is not amazing because of the fact that they are beyond repair, as has been reported.

Okay, very good.

So that's a pretty broad breakdown of everything that's on the table over the next little while.

What are the dates again, like broadly speaking, in terms of getting your applications in for anybody listening on behalf of a club?

OK, you have been listening to Charlie McConnell, local minister of state with responsibility for sport.

Minister, thanks for coming in.

Thanks very much, Eoin.

So Real Madrid are playing Barcelona on Sunday night in a Clásico.

And while the game feels unimportant because Barcelona are so far ahead of them,

It kind of feels like the most important Clásico in a long time for all the off-field drama that we've seen develop at Real Madrid over the past number of days.

So just to break this down, Federico Valverde, who's one of their best players, basically ended up in hospital with a head injury.

And this was after a row.

with Aurelien Choumeny, his French teammate, the midfielder.

And now Valverde has gone on the record and said there was no connection to the head, no punch to the head.