All-Ireland Camogie Championship to commence without title sponsor

Meighan Farrell of Kilkenny during the Liberty Insurance All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship final last year. Picture: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

This year's All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship, which throws in this weekend, will be without a title sponsor.

Camogie President Hilda Breslin today confirmed that no new sponsor has been found for the All-Ireland senior, intermediate, and premier junior championships following the decision of Liberty Insurance to bring an end to their eight-year sponsorship of the sport’s flagship competition.

Breslin insisted that the absence of a title sponsor for this year’s All-Ireland Championship won’t impact on the game of camogie and won't impact “significantly” on the association’s bottom line as reserves built up over a number of years will compensate for the inevitable dip in sponsorship income.

Sponsorship income from the association’s various partners totalled €163,000 in 2020, a figure that was way down on the 2019 total of €263,000. Despite this drop, as well as their gate receipts income falling off a cliff edge last year, the Camogie Association recorded a surplus of €534k for 2020 and carried forward into 2021 a balance of almost €1.7m.

The Camogie president said the association did not want to rush into a stopgap sponsorship partnership for the 2021 season and were instead focused on securing a five-year sponsorship deal that would move forward both the game of camogie and women in sport.

“Liberty Insurance signified last year that it was going to be there last year. It was really a change in focus for Liberty themselves and a change in their business model.

“Sponsorship usually takes about a year to 18 months to put in place. Last year being a Covid year, we weren't probably in the best place for a commercial sponsorship. We are ongoing looking at that,” Breslin remarked.

What we are looking at is a sponsorship for three to five years and we are looking to tie that up at the best time for camogie. We will be ensuring that the sponsorship we do sign lasts us long into the future.

“In the short-term, we are not rushing to do anything that is going to tie our hands because the future of the game is far more important than one season, so we are looking at a partnership for three to five years to move the game on, very similar to how Littlewoods and Liberty have done it, and that is the end goal for sponsorship for camogie.

“It is not necessarily monetary value, it is the value of progressing the game and women's sport.” When asked if Camogie League sponsors Littlewoods Ireland had been approached to come on board as title championship sponsors, Breslin replied: “We have looked at all eventualities. We obviously are very supported by Littlewoods and Littlewoods have been very good to us in our National League.

“They have invested very heavily in camogie this year and over the last couple of years. In terms of the ongoing relationship with Littlewoods, the National League is there and it will continue as it always does.” 

Reigning All-Ireland champions Kilkenny get their O’Duffy Cup defence underway away to Clare on Saturday. Last year’s beaten finalists, Galway, are also in action on Saturday at home to Westmeath.

The Camogie Association will livestream two championship games each weekend.