A Conservative spokesman has expressed bemusement, after a Stormont Committee was told that a report by the Irish Football Association (IFA) into a stand collapsing at Windsor Park stadium might never be made public. Neil Wilson said it was vital to “have transparency on an issue which is about public safety”.
“The IFA has told Stormont that its report will not be published, but that is simply not good enough”, Neil reiterated. “I know that the association is in the midst of litigation and claims, but 4,000 people were in the Kop when it started to collapse. We might have been talking about major loss of life or injury, so keeping the reasons for its subsidence secret is really not an option.”
“The reconstruction of spectator facilities across Northern Ireland continues, with major questions, for instance, about the safety of the proposed new stadium at Casement Park. It’s important that we put fans’ lives first and that’s why this report needs to be published, so that any guilty parties and key problems can be identified. The IFA is responsible to its fans and this information must be made freely available, so that the organisation can be held to account for their safety, into the future.”