Eirgrid and the GAA have announced a five-year extension to their partnership which will now run until the end of the 2024 season.

The company, which manages and develops the country’s electricity grid, officially launched the 2019 EirGrid GAA Football U20 All-Ireland Championship in Croke Park yesterday.

Padraic Joyce, Galway’s U20 manager, is widely quoted in the media this morning around his county’s defeat in Sunday’s Connacht Championship.

Eirgrid has been on board as sponsors of the tournament since 2015 and have previously activated their sponsorship through running competitions for clubs to win scoreboards for their local grounds.

This ties in with the additional element of the sponsorship with Eirgrid as the official timing partner and featuring on TV up in the left-hand top corner where the clock is shown.

“I am pleased to welcome the extension of EirGrid’s support of our GAA Football U20 Championship for a further five years,” said GAA Director General Tom Ryan.

“This competition has always captured the imagination of football followers in its own right in addition to providing a springboard for so many players and counties to develop and shine.”

“We look forward to working with EirGrid and our counties in showcasing everything that football at this grade has to offer.”

“This is the fifth year of our partnership with the GAA as sponsors of the competition, and we enter this campaign with a renewed purpose, energy and appetite for the season to come,” added Mark Foley, Eirgrid CEO.

“I am delighted to formally announce a 5-year extension to our partnership with GAA as title sponsor of the U20’s Football Championship extending our commitment to the competition out to 2024.”

The EirGrid Leinster U20 Championship gets underway this weekend when Kildare take on Laois, Carlow play Offaly and Wexford meet Wicklow, all in the hope for a place in the provincial quarter-finals.

Down and Antrim are first to face off in Ulster on Sunday, June 23rd in Clones.

The EirGrid Connacht U20 Championship kicks off on 26th June when Leitrim face off against Roscommon in the quarter-final of the competition.

The Munster competition commences on July 2nd when Waterford and Clare go head to head as do Tipperary and Limerick.



Image Credit: Eoin Noonan, Sportsfile