A WEST Belfast football club say damage to goalposts caused by vandalism over the weekend will cost around £700 to replace.
Twenty sets of nets at the Falls Park pitches used by Belfast Celtic Young Men and Ladies FC had their cross-bars snapped overnight on Friday.
The damage was discovered just hours ahead of around 450 kids arriving for a cross-community tournament on Saturday morning.
Sinn Féin councillor Michael Donnelly condemned the vandalism.
"Yet again, a club that does so much for our community turns up on a Saturday morning to find equipment damaged again," he said.
"I’ll be requesting an urgent meeting with senior council staff as soon as possible as we’ve been continually pushing for a shipping container to be situated in the park for the likes of equipment to go into.
"Equipment should freely sit out but unfortunately there’s a small element who are just set on wreck and ruin.Solidarity with Belfast Celtic."
Club Secretary Ryan Whelan thanked everyone for their support following the incident.
"Firstly, thank you everyone for your support, it's been incredible," he said.
"The amount of people contacting us to purchase new equipment has been unbelievable.
"There's no point in us taking people's hard earned money for this to happen again, what hurts is that today we could have turned away hundreds of kids who all week look forward to play a game of football and meet new friends.
"Thankfully, we worked and got the nets into some shape for the kids to play and didn't let it effect us, but arriving down this morning to see that was devastating.
"This is happening too often and we feel like a burden complaining every time but something has to give. There's too much positivity from this programme to let it all go down the drain.
"Thanks to our local councillor Micheal Donnelly who came down and has requested an urgent meeting with council bosses to try get a solution to this.
"It won't stop what we and other clubs are doing for the community."
