Shelbourne director warns funding needed ‘if we want another Italia 90' & says Mason Melia ‘example of what can be done'

The Irish Sun

25-07-2025

SHELBOURNE academy director Colm Barron looks at the success of Mason Melia and imagines what more could be achieved.
Melia, 17, will move to
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Shelbourne academy director Colm Barron
Credit: RTE
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Mason Melia, bound for Tottenham Hotspur, celebrates after scoring a goal for St Patrick's Athletic
Credit: Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile
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25 April 2025; Victor Ozhianvuna has been linked with Arsenal
Credit: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
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Cathal O'Sullivan has been linked with Brentford
Credit: Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile
He is one of a number of emerging teenage talents coming through the League of
Ireland
.
star
with the Premier Division leaders.
next
million-euro export
In the eyes of Colm Barron, this quartet - among other - is an example of what can be done with the kind of support that is currently lacking.
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The Shelbourne academy director told SunSport: "I think that shows the evidence that the National League underage is working.
"My point would be, can you imagine what we could do, or potentially could do, if we were able to get 16-17-year-olds into full-time
football
within our own country, while also supporting them?
"I think what's happened over the last few years with the likes of Mason, etc., and plenty of other good young players coming through, has been brilliant.
"But what happens when he's 22-23 will really determine whether it's been a success or not for him, so I wouldn't get carried away with that.
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"There was
"I wouldn't say they're coming through despite the system; it's probably a good realisation with regards to the good
work
that's being done at clubs."
RTE pundit's one-liner about Damien Duff makes Joey O'Brien laugh after Shelbourne's win vs Linfield
Barron is no stranger to the kind of funding and resource support required by the
Back in April, LOI Academy Development Manager Will Clarke
He outlined how there were just nine players between the ages of 16 and 19 in a full-time environment in Ireland, in addition to "a handful" abroad.
Clarke revealed how, to have success at international level, we need 35 players playing in the top five leagues in
The impact of
Barron said: "Everything is privately funded by the clubs, so whether that's through investment from the owners - they do the best that they possibly can to support the academy system.
"With Brexit and the changes that have happened in the game in regards to young players going to the UK, there's a massive emphasis now on the National League clubs especially to be developing these players.
"The infrastructure just isn't there to support them, to give them the best opportunity, and while clubs like ourselves and other League of Ireland clubs are doing their best to fight the system, having that infrastructure around players to be able to hire more staff, player care, sports
psychology
, all those elements need to be there to develop elite level athletes.
"If that's what our ambition is in
this country
, which it needs to be because we all want
spring
back days of
USA
94, Italia 90, then there needs to be a major support put in through the government or through the
FAI
and that's just not there at the moment.
GLASS CEILING
"The level of the ceiling from a football perspective is probably getting close to being reached if the funding around it doesn't change.
"There's no club in this country who has a full time academy system for 16-18 year old players.
"If that was to change as a starting point, the League of Ireland product would just go through the roof.
"The improvement of players would also go through the roof, and then we start to get closer to breaching the gap between ourselves and other European countries."
"Can you imagine what we could do, or potentially could do, if we were able to get 16-17-year-olds into full-time football within our own country, while also supporting them?"
Colm Barron
Barron hopes to demonstrate the work being done in a hand-cuffed system through the upcoming
documentary
Football Families
.
The new series, which airs on
next
Thursday night at 10:10pm, offers a behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings at Tolka Park.
It was filmed in 2024 at a time when
And Barron hopes it will expose the public to the sacrifices involved in a football club, and expose rising stars to the kind of scrutiny they can expect in the professional game.
"The thought process for us when we were approached for that was for two reasons.
"To shine a light on the good work that's being done in academies at the moment through an under-resourced system in regards to support, funding and infrastructure from the government and the FAI.
"And then the second thing was for players to potentially receive an opportunity for something that they might experience in the
future
with regards to cameras being around.
"It's good for them to be exposed to them things and to handle that side of the game.
"Young people's lives are lived out through
social media
, the majority of them.
"It's become more and more common that players have agents at younger ages. People are probably starting to lose the run on themselves a little bit with regards to that.
"We see the glitz and glamour of
Sky
Sports and footballers believe that, 'oh yeah, that's me' or 'that's what I want to be'.
"They don't see the hardship, the setbacks, the discipline, the sacrifice that it takes to do that.
"Education around that is huge. The support network around that is something again that needs to be invested in.
"Players need to be cared for around all aspects, not just what they do on the pitch.
"To do that you have to have resources, you have to have time, you have to have
money
to do that."
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Shamrock Rovers star Michael Noonan
Credit: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile