2022 was a year of highs and lows, from emerging out of lockdown to qualifying for a Women’s World Cup Finals and watching the Men’s tournament play out in the days leading up to Christmas.

Over twelve days, we are taking a back at twelve of the tales each month that captured our and your imagination over the past twelve months.

FEBRUARY 2022

FAI LAUNCHES NEW STRATEGIC PLAN

Less than 12 hours after confirming its part in a bid to stage the Euro 20208 Finals across the islands of Britain and Ireland, the FAI launched a new strategic plan to cover the period that will get us halfway to that point.

Coming from where the FAI was a little under three years ago, every step forward in the right direction has to be encouraged.

Politicians will always admit to it being much easier in opposition when you can be against most things, harder when you come to power and have to find the solutions.

This is a detailed stab at doing just that.

Beyond the fine words of the introduction, you can only judge a plan in advance by what it sets as firm targets when they might be achieved by, and by whom the work will be done.

In this, the FAI plan is a good starting point.

It is borne of a wide consultation process though when the future of the Association is on the line one might have hoped for a little more thoughtful engagement than 5,709 respondents to a research survey and 40 written submissions.

GOLF IRELAND PUBLISHES FIRST STRATEGIC PLAN

Golf Ireland launched a new five-year Strategic Plan that will help guide the game from 2022 to 2026.

Under the heading of ‘Golf For Everyone’, this is the first strategy of its kind from Golf Ireland, that came after a lengthy consultation process, involving the input of 10,000 golfers and other stakeholders.

There are five key areas of focus – ‘Securing the Future of Golf’, ‘Supporting Our Clubs and Golfers’, ‘Leading Our Organisation’, ‘Delivering Our Events’ and ‘Nurturing Our Talent’.

These are broken down into a golf friendly 18 objectives and 76 action points against which delivery of the plan will be measured.

LIDL COMMITS TO FOUR MORE YEARS WITH LGFA

Lidl announced the extension of its partnership with the Ladies Gaelic Football Association by another four years.

It is a remarkable six years since the two first came together after the playful teaser campaign promoting Ladyball. Since then it has been one of the most powerful sporting partnerships of all time and the new extension will see it come to a decade of #serioussupport.

The partnership is as the official retailer but it goes well beyond that and has also become a best in class case study of a sporting organisation working with other partners for the common good, in this case especially TG4 and Sports Direct, but not just limited to them.

The investment has also been revealed as being worth €5 million over these next four years, the same amount as has gone in over the previous six.

SIX-YEAR DEAL FOR HORIZON IRISH OPEN

Horizon Therapeutics has been named as the new Title Partner of the Irish Open.

The six-year deal will begin with the 2022 Horizon Irish Open at Mount Juliet Estate in County Kilkenny, Ireland, from June 30 to July 3. As a result of the new sponsor, replacing Dubai Duty Free who had backed the tournament since 2015, this year’s prize fund will double in value from 2021 to a figure of €6 million.

GAA ACCOUNTS SHOW POSITIVE SIGNS OF RECOVERY

The GAA published its Annual report and Accounts for 2021 which showed a strong bounce back from the financial tsunami that hit the accounts in 2020.

The report though is about more than just the numbers and we looked in detail at some of the key elements over the days that followed.

The functioning of the country’s largest community organisation is fuelled by the revenue that it brings in at the central, provincial and county levels over the course of a year.

The headline revenue figure for the eleven months to 30 September 2021 climbed from €50.4 million in the twelve months before to €87.4 million.

€29.7 million of this was in state funding across different streams but there were major uplifts in gate receipts, from €3.6 million to €11.6 million, and in sponsorship and media payments from €9.1 million to €26.9 million.

These figures account for two all Ireland Championships, albeit only one with anything approaching the potential audiences of a regular full-season. By way of comparison, 2019 saw record gate receipts of €36.0 million as part of overall revenues of €118 million.

CAPITAL GRANT INJECTION OF €150 MILLION CONFIRMED

The Government has announced an overall package of €150 million in new capital grants under the latest round of the Sports Capital and Equipment Programme.

A record high of €144 million has been allocated to almost 1,900 applications with €6 million kept in reserve for successful appeals lodged by unsuccessful applicants.

3,106 applications had been submitted seeking over €200m in funding when this round closed in March 2021.  This was also the highest number of applications ever received, showing that there is still a huge demand for the funding.

GETTING HEALTHY WITH FANS AND LEAGUE OF IRELAND CLUBS

The League of Ireland got underway but it was not the only League that we woud be tracking this season for the clubs involved.

The Bank of Ireland sponsored Healthy Football League also kicked off and League of Ireland players were urging their supporters to sign up to see their club named as the healthiest club in Ireland.

The app-based health promotion programme used the friendly rivalry of football fans and communities to encourage health-enhancing physical exercise.

The competition was open to people of all ages and fitness levels. It was a positive way to have fans engaged in their being part of the club and keeping up their own momentum on moving for wellbeing.

MUNSTER AND PINERGY SIGN TEN YEAR PARTNERSHIP

Munster Rugby has signed a new ten-year partnership deal with Pinergy which represents a long-term commitment to Munster Rugby’s sustainability strategy.

Already supplying 100% renewable energy to Munster’s Thomond Park and Musgrave Park, Pinergy will now fund a 10-year partnership to install a 400 kw peak Solar installation at Cork’s Musgrave Park.

AVIVA LIGHTS UP FOR UKRAINE

The Aviva Stadium lit up at the end of the month in the blue and yellow colours of the Ukraine as part of a global show of solidarity.

The Football Association of Ireland has also offered its full and unequivocal support to Ukraine’s FA and confirmed that no Irish team will play against Russia at any level until further notice.

Ukraine were due to kick off the 2022 UEFA Nations League campaign against the Republic of Ireland at the Aviva Stadium in June with the return fixture ten days later at a neutral venue yet to be determined.

Little could we have imagined the destruction that would arise through the year in the country and that region of the world.

SPORT FOR SOCIAL GOOD FROM A STUDIO SETTING

It was great to get back out into the real world for our 2022 Sport for Social Good events. The morning was given over to the online show live from the HBV Studios in North Dublin. We were joined by Matt Rogan, Valerie Hedin of Allianz, Niamh Murphy of the Huskies Agency, Kelly Cooke of the United Rugby Championship and Daniel Lambert of Bohemian FC to cover a wide but tightly themed range of Sport for Social Good projects and campaigns.

Over 400 Sport for Business members and guests tuned in to the show from across Ireland and around the world and the reaction was excellent.

STATSPORTS SECURES ALL BLACKS PARTNERSHIP

Newry-based STATSports became the official high-performance supplier of the All Blacks, the most successful national men’s rugby team of all time.

STATSports now provides their cutting-edge GPS performance technology to the All Blacks, All Blacks Sevens and Black Ferns Sevens on a long-term deal until 2024.

Trackers are worn by the players during training and matches, allowing coaches to track over 200 metrics live including distance, speed, intensity and collisions throughout the games, leading to live decisions in training and on matchday based on the data.

The company now partners with four of the top five teams in World Rugby men’s international rankings in South Africa, the All Blacks, England, and Ireland.

GAELIC INTEGRATION GETS OVERWHELMING YES VOTE

The motion that the outside world was watching most closely at the GAA Annual Congress on the last weekend of the month was that urging a priority commitment to integration between the GAA which governs men’s Gaelic games, the Ladies Gaelic Football Association and the Camogie Association.

There was no drama, with every speaker given time from the floor in the debate speaking in favour and the motion being passed by an overwhelming majority of 89.8 per cent in favour.