The Minister revealed that he had had a 'positive meeting' with the club officials last week, at which they had put forward their proposals, but he would not be drawn on what the final grant would be for the club.

Outlining the road ahead, Mr Campbell said: "What I have done is put a number of things to them, and I've said it to others as well.

"Obviously the Brandywell Stadium and a whole lot of other stadiums in Northern Ireland are in need of upgrading.

"We are not talking about the Maze here, if you go to stadia for local football and grounds for local cricket team, Gaelic teams and rugby teams, many of them are below standard.

"They have Health and Safety implications, they are not attractive to bringing in families, they are not comfortable.

"They just are not suitable for the 21st Century for a sporting arena, and the Brandywell stadium is one of those which is below class standard."

"Over the next period of months, I will be looking at the Brandywell and other stadia that have applied to be upgraded.

"The Brandywell Properties people have said they have a £14m project to develop the stadium and they are looking for a £5 million grant from the Department of Culture Arts and Leisure. So I will be looking at that along with the others."

However, the Minister added: "Now I have to give them a word of caution, as I have done with everyone else. It doesn't take a mathematical genius to work out that probably everyone will get about half of what they want.

"That's the figure, but I am not saying that's what it will be.

"I just want to give a general warning, I know that stadia are under par and they need to be brought up to speed, and I hope to be able to help, but it might not be possible to get everybody everything that they want."