School sport is meant to be fun, but at some stage this crucial point must have been forgotten as cost-cutting ruled the day. Children of the 1980s had to make do with cold, barren changing rooms and, in some areas, blaize football pitches that matched a Stanley knife in their ability to cut through bare skin.
The government, to its credit, recognised that school sporting facilities were in need of a major upgrade, and in 2000 the Prime Minister announced the creation of the New Opportunities Fund for PE and Sport programme.
Its role was to allocate 750m of Lottery money to bring about a "step change" in the provision of sports facilities for young people and communities in general. However, it has emerged that only 8.5m from the fund has actually been spent since the programme officially launched in November 2001. What's more, none of Northern Ireland's 33.75m has filtered through to projects yet.
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