A CEO who has worked across football, tennis, cricket, and now hockey sees Irish sport differently, and you can hear it in every answer. We’re joined by Richard Fahey, CEO of Hockey Ireland, to talk about how careers are built in sports administration, what actually drives participation growth, and why the unglamorous work of facilities, governance, and funding is where championships and communities are really made.
Richard walks us from his early coaching days into a defining moment at the FAI: spotting a missing layer of management, proposing a solution, and then helping scale a technical department from a small budget into a nationwide engine. We also get a clear view of how club licensing can lift standards across a league by using regulation as a developmental tool, improving coaching, financial stability, and infrastructure rather than just ticking boxes.
The timing is big for Hockey Ireland too. With both men’s and women’s teams heading to the 2026 Hockey World Cup in Belgium, we talk sponsorship strategy, broadcast reach, and how to turn a major tournament into club membership, volunteers, and new hockey communities in parts of Ireland where the sport barely exists.
Richard also makes a strong athlete welfare case for dual-career athletes, including a proposed tax measure that recognises the personal cost of representing Ireland while holding down a day job.
If you care about Irish sport leadership, high performance planning, grassroots development, and the future of hockey in Ireland, this one is full of practical detail. Subscribe to our podcast at Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get yours from, share it with someone working in sport, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway. It all helps to spread the word about sport being so much more than a single result.
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