The move from Nyon before Christmas was designed to undermine and discredit the bid, and came exactly one month after the Irish Government announced - last November - a €135m draft support package, to cover the hosting of the tournament in this country.

If there was an index on the stock price for the Irish sports business sector, 2022 would present a sporting ISEQ of unpredictable volatility and trend-changing movements

The amended EU Act will be approved by the European Commission in 2023 and will force the banning of plastics used in up to 2,500 artificial pitches across the country, and tens of thousands of surfaces in the EU.

From Thursday until the early New Year, 90,000 fans will converge on the most compelling and barmiest tournament on the sporting calendar – the PDC World Darts Championship

His FedEx Cup win (doing the same in Europe by winning the DP World’s Race to Dubai), 10 Top 10 finishes at 16 PGA Tour events – second at The Masters - and $8.6m in prize money was surely enough to win PIP’s $15m winner’s purse – ahead of an uncompetitive Tiger.

But what if that figure should be €3.1m - or perhaps as high as €3.4m - but isn’t, because 18,000 of the 23,000 sales were discounted and presented to customers 72 hours before a Euro 2024 Qualifying draw?

Wales along with all 32 National Associations have already banked $9m for just being in Qatar – with extra matches set to come in at approximately $4m for a first knock-out game, and rising further.

They will spend approximately £25m in the process of watching their favourite teams, representing the largest inbound visitors to the UK of all international soccer tourists.

As the team winds up its final group game at the ICC T20 World Cup in Adelaide v New Zealand, Cricket Ireland will continue the pre-planning phase as one of the co-hosts of the competition in 2030.

Munster Rugby's effort to go new behind-the-scenes is part of a sports-wide pivot to documentary production