The search remains ongoing for a new main commercial partner to come on board with the FAI.

CEO Jonathon Hill comes from a commercial background and two consultants Jonathan Neill and Murray Barnett are also working on presenting a case to potential supporters.

There has been no bite as yet but the sponsorship market is considerably more buoyant in early 2022 than it has been since Three gave their notice to end their own partnership back in 2019.

Lidl has committed to an additional four years and €5 million with Ladies Football; Allianz has come on board as the main commercial partner of the Olympic Federation of Ireland; KPMG has committed to four more years with Leona Maguire; Irish Life is on board as a new partner with the GAA’s Health Programmes and the Dublin Marathon and TikTok is on the pitch at the Aviva Stadium with the Women’s Six Nations.

The FAI itself has a strong roster of commercial partnerships with Sky Ireland backing the Women’s Game, SSE Airtricity launching its next season of the League of Ireland later today, Bank of Ireland, Aviva, Carlsberg, Spar Nissan, DHL, DMG Media, EA Sports and plenty more signing up to be part of the football story.

But the headline partner is important in terms of the financial input but also the promotional side.

“Yes it’s a negative that there is no sponsor but we are coming from a bad place,” said FAI Chair Roy Barrett at a media briefing yesterday.

“We have focused on acknowledging the past and worked on the reputation of the FAI to make us investable from a partnership perspective.”

“I genuinely believe that we will find a sponsor that wants to align with the Senior Men’s international team and where it is going,” added CEO Jonathon Hill.

“There are so many good stories there, so many pointers to an Ireland that is young, articulate and diverse.”

“What Sky have done with the Women’s team has been outstanding. CEO JD Buckley has said that they have never had a property that moved the dial more in terms of positive sentiment. That’s now a case study tp present to others.

“It is a sales process. You have to be in the right place at the right time and sometimes you have to be lucky.”

That is certainly the case and these things always take time, especially so when emerging into a different world of activation.

You have to remain positive though and we look forward to the day when a new partner is unveiled.