Sponsorship saga has to end for FAI as Boys in Green await backer
FAI chief executive Jonathan Hill has extensive commerical contacts but it has yet to result in a backer for the men's international team. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA Wire
When Ireland begin the international calendar year with a glamour friendly against Belgium next week, there’ll be one notable absentee which is becoming increasingly difficult to comprehend.
The apparel which Stephen Kenny’s players sport in training at Abbotstown from Monday will be devoid of a brand, two years on from mobile operator Three disconnecting their decade-long sponsorship.
How the jerseys and tracksuits remain blank on the national team of the country’s most participated sport is moot, aggravated by the slew of excuses trotted out.
From the FAI’s tarnished reputation to Covid-19 challenges and Brexit, the latest to get an airing is Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Unless the association soon ends its search, the need to man the barricades may be nigh.
With State funding to compensate for lost revenue during the pandemic ceasing, the FAI has to stand on its own two feet to financially function.
One will do for now and it starts with the fundamental of a marquee backer. That’s not conjecture; just check out a caveat in the last set of accounts that showed debts of over €65m.
“The association’s underlying income is dependent upon variable revenue streams, including ticketing and commercial revenue, in order to achieve financial stability. Any reduction in revenue could result in an inability to make the investments needed in grassroots, high performance, clubs, leagues and international teams, as well as in support functions such as finance and human resources,” sounded the warning.
Let’s examine the figures for context. Three shelled out a basic €2.5m annually, before qualification bonuses, and the FAI is pitching to the market for a similar figure within a four-year package. By contrast, while much has been made of the 18,000 season tickets offloaded, the discounted nature and family bundle element brings the total revenue to around the same amount they’ve missed out by failing to land a sponsor successor.
Three, and before them Opel and Eircom, primarily forked out a significant portion of their budget to attach themselves to a winning team. Corporate hospitality, along with meet-and-greets with players, are all well and good but the feelgood factor, especially deriving from major tournaments, is where brands capitalise on their investment.
In explaining the slowness of movement, the FAI preferred to cite historical damage rather than results on the pitch – well, up till last month anyway.
It’s no secret that Jonathan Hill’s stellar record in the commercial world of football was one of the decisive factors in his appointment as chief executive in November 2020, giving him the upperhand over corporate governance guru Sarah Keane. The big-ticket items from his commercial directorships at the English FA and Wembley were impressive; Nike’s £300m deal, £36m from EON along with a £125m increase in domestic sponsorship over four years.
Despite triumphs in other aspects of his brief, transferring that midas touch to the Irish remains his biggest struggle.
Sky’s arrival as the women’s team partner in September, though welcome, banked a fraction of the men’s equivalent and wasn’t the first time the female squad attracted a standalone sponsor.
“To find a new sponsor in a Covid scenario was always going to be a challenge," Hill said just over a year ago on the subject of filling Three’s void.
"That doesn’t mean we're not in the market place. I believe we are the No 1 sport in the world and a World Cup qualification year reminds us of that. We are out there talking and it's our intention to find a partner."
Lots of talking has followed with little outcome. At the December meeting of the FAI’s General Assembly, in response to an update request by delegate James Kelly, Hill stated that “a number of ongoing conversations were ongoing” and he was “very hopeful” of having a new flagship partner in place for the March double-header.
It appears to be more hope than expectation. Hill was the first to finally admit the performance of the senior side in Stephen Kenny’s “early stages” were among the factors, a moment of frankness from the straight-talking Yorkshireman. He was stating the obvious, for its inconceivable that a company wouldn’t have jumped aboard if Ireland were preparing for a World Cup playoff next week rather than dead-rubber friendlies.
Ireland haven’t played in an empty stadium for a year and the macro conditions are favourable for a corporate pitching their wagon to a good news story that the diverse Irish squad is considered.
Exchequer returns from the private sector are booming and Ireland is a global hub for the pharma and tech sectors.
Indeed, several of the conglomerates are located close to the FAI’s headquarters around the M50 belt. You’d like to think Hill and his new commercial consultant Jonathan Neill are creating openings and getting to sell the story which he’s convinced will stick. No longer can the FAI be imprisoned by its past, according to Roy Barrett. The Chairman isn’t tolerating excuses concerning what his new broom inherited.
Sponsorship deals are there to be brokered, evidenced last week by Permanent TSB aligning with the Irish Olympic and Irish Paralympic teams for the Paris 2024 Games.
For a man partial to using a soundbite relating to direction of travel, we can only hope it starts heading up-Hill for the FAI’s battered coffers.
Another weekend of waterlogged pitches — at all levels of football — reignited the debate over which season format is most suitable for Ireland. Currently the vast majority of schoolboys/girls, youths and amateur adult leagues operate the traditional winter season, from September to May. This is best explained to parents of underage players as mirroring around the school calendar.
At national league level, however, the senior divisions changed to a summer version, March to October, in 2002 and have stuck with it . Progress in Europe and a better fan experience in the dryer weather have been the main pluses proffered by those in authority.
The underage leagues that have since come onstream followed that schedule and then FAI high performance director Ruud Dokter decreed in his player development plan a policy to extend it nationwide at all levels. However reversion became the norm during 2019, the year of the FAI’s credit and credibility crisis.
A couple of points to note on the latest furore. Leagues don’t act arbitrarily on such important matters without taking direction from their clubs. Another observation is the fact that the recent postponements would still have occurred in the “summer season”, for the timetable had games kicking off at the start of March.
A frantic start to the national leagues will ease next week when the Premier Division takes its first-ever international break.
Friday’s games will be the seventh in four weeks for most top-flight teams, with the First Division one Monday night series behind.
Both tiers have avoided any runaway leaders at this early stage, just two points separating the Premier’s top four, with three leaders in the second tier deadlocked on 10 points apiece.
That St Patrick’s Athletic sit pretty at the summit by a point despite losing two of their six games illustrates the open nature of competition. Shamrock Rovers were never going to canter to a third title on the spin with the same superiority of their first two. The top four meet this Friday - the two Rovers squaring up at Tallaght while Derry City host St Pat’s.
In the First Division, Treaty United’s duel with leaders Cork City is the big attraction of the new public holiday. Problems with the Markets Field pitch leaves Treaty in the unusual position of facing into their first home game of the season and they’ll be ready to combat the threat of Cork’s rising tide. Treaty have the games in hand to elevate into the mix and Friday’s afternoon test will be a leveller for a side playing down expectations of another tilt at reaching the play-offs.
Email: john.fallon@examiner.ie
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