We were pleased to host a special football breakfast yesterday on the floor of the old Irish Stock Exchange on Foster Place in partnership with CapGem and Drogheda United.

The excitement around Drogheda’s Sports Direct FAI Cup Final on Sunday was bubbling up as former club Chair and CEO of CapGem Conor Hoey took to the stage to introduce two panels.

The first was Rob Hartnett chatting with Trivela Group Head of Global Football Matt Jordan and Vice President of Operations and Executive Director at Drogheda, Wesley Hill.

This was a rare opportunity to examine the motivations and mechanics of a global multi-club model, and nothing was off the table.

We spoke of the challenges that the SSE Airtricity League has had in the past with some overseas investors, which did not work out, but these guys are cut from a different cloth.

The research and due diligence they undertook showed them that the club’s attitude to developing players and being the heartbeat of the local community was one that would be a great fit with their playbook. A crowd of 40,000 in the Aviva on Sunday, and a chance to be 90 minutes away from European football, is a positive return in the first year.

We did not hide away from the fact that the following week will see a relegation play-off that the lads described as a ‘bump in the road’, but this is a long-term play, and they see all the fundamentals as being positive.

We spoke about the plans for a new stadium and whether being on the reserve list rather the green light list with regard to the Government announcement on Monday about the Large Scale Sports Infrastructure Fund was a blow.

“We had our plans for a new stadium, and to be honest, the possibility of securing Government money was a real bonus for that,” said Hill. “We did a very good job planning and putting forward our proposal, and we have heard from football and government that it was very well received.”

The League is in a great position, flying high with Shelbourne winning the title and Shamrock Rovers getting another win in Europe last night. Chair of Rovers Ciaran Medlar and Director John Bateson were among our guests yesterday, as were Michael O’Keeffe of Teneo and Ashley Keating of SSE Airtricity.

The room was filled with financial heavy hitters, including EY and Deloitte, some of whom were hearing and listening to the story of Irish domestic football through a new filter and that can only be a positive.

The second chat was David Sheehan of LMFM with Drogheda Manager Kevin Doherty and RTÉ analyst Alan Cawley.

Drogheda will take to the field as underdogs on Sunday but do not rule them out. They have a very lively chance against a Derry side that looked tired in their defeat to Shelbourne last weekend in front of a peak TV audience of 400,000.

We are excited for the 2025 season already, and very much so for Sunday.

 

 

 

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