Hawk-Eye system to have sponsor

The GAA have confirmed Hawk-Eye will have a sponsor and it will be unveiled next month providing a motion is passed at Congress in two weeks’ time.

The score detection technology, which deals with points only, will begin its long-awaited trial at Croke Park in June as long as the proposal is backed in Derry. GAA commercial and stadium director Peter McKenna confirmed yesterday they are 100% satisfied the product is viable and ready to be corporately backed.

“We launch on June 1 with the first match here. Technically, we’re very pleased with that. The connection with the referee is working well too, so we would be in a position to announce a sponsor of Hawk-Eye perhaps in around six weeks’ time.”

Due to commercial sensitivities, McKenna would not confirm whether an existing championship sponsor or a new one would be coming on board to back the system. Rolex has sponsored the technology in Wimbledon.

Hawk-Eye has been in operation in a non-live capacity for quite some time in Croke Park but will be given its full debut in the first part of a double-header Leinster quarter-final when Kildare face Offaly. That Kildare are among the first two counties to experience Hawk-Eye is ironic given Alan Smith’s disputed point in the 2010 All-Ireland semi-final against Down.

On the same day, Benny Coulter scored what was an illegitimate square ball goal, Smith’s shot appeared to go between the posts but was determined by umpires to have gone wide.