A major financial rescue package has been announced for the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) - including a doubling of Sport Ireland funding and a €7.5 million interest-free loan.
It follows a meeting between Government officials, the FAI, UEFA and Bank of Ireland in Dublin today.
Sport Ireland funding of €2.9 million has been restored for football development programmes - with the amount to be doubled from the previous amount to €5.8 million for the next four years.
That amounts to €11.6 million between this year and 2024.
An interest-free loan of €2.5 million per year for three years will also be provided, in a bid to protect the FAI's stake in the Aviva Stadium.
The money will be payable directly to the stadium operations company and the loan will be repayable from 2024.
All the financial assistance will be "absolutely conditional" on major reforms being implemented within the association.
Bank of Ireland also confirmed it has agreed in principle a sponsorship agreement with the FAI.
'New dawn'
Announcing the measures, Sports Minister Shane Ross claimed it was "not a bail out" for the FAI and the money would only be provided on "very, very strict" conditions.
He said: "This morning the Cabinet held an urgent incorporeal meeting to approve an agreement between the Government and the Football Association of Ireland.
"It's taken a long time to reach this agreement, but I'd like to thank everybody involved for the extraordinary effort they have made to do so."
He added: "I hope today will mark a new dawn for Irish football - there have been very dark days in recent times... at some stage I thought we'd never get to where we are now."
"What we have seen I think is a very successful dismantling of the old guard and the installation of an inspiring new board."
The FAI welcomed today's announcement.
The association's independent chairperson Roy Barrett said in a statement: “This agreement is vital for Irish football and allows us to take the first steps in the rebirth of our sport.
"We can now progress with our plans to restructure and rebuild the Association and do what is best for our staff, our players and all our stakeholders with minimum disruption for Irish football."
Accounts published late last year revealed that the FAI had liabilities of over €55 million, while Minister of State Brendan Griffin later told an Oireachtas committee that the association's debt stood at €62 million.
Sport Ireland suspended funding to the FAI in April 2019 amid concerns over the association's finances.
