By Mark Baber
November 12 – CK Hutchison Holdings Limited’s Three-branded Irish telecoms business announced on Wednesday the renewal of its partnership with the Republic of Ireland football team and the Football Association of Ireland (FAI), pledging support to Irish football until 2020 in a deal worth €8.9 million.
As the primary sponsor of the Irish national football team, Three Ireland, which following its merger with O2 Ireland has over 2 million subscribers, will continue to have exclusive branding rights to include training and playing gear and kit, ticket branding, high visibility pitch-side branding at the Aviva Stadium as well as ‘Money Can’t Buy’ experiences, which will be exclusive for Three customers.
Commenting on the renewal, Robert Finnegan, CEO of Three Ireland said: “Since 2010 we have built a very positive and beneficial partnership with the FAI and we are delighted to be continuing this for the next four years. At Three, the fans are always at the heart of our sponsorships be it football or music, through our sponsorship of 3Arena and various music festivals. We already have a range of exciting initiatives in place for football supporters with lots more planned for the coming years as we all continue to get behind our national team.
“An incredible 1.1 million people tuned in to watch Ireland’s historic win over Germany in October. Football is not only drawing huge numbers of viewers and spectators with sell out matches in the Aviva Stadium, but also continues to be the most popular sport in the country for people to participate in. This is only set to increase with some very exciting times ahead for Ireland’s footballing public which will hopefully see us competing in EURO 2016 in France and the FIFA World Cup in Russia in 2018 and at Three, we look forward to being a part of this.”
John Delaney FAI CEO said: “I am delighted to continue our partnership with Three, in a deal that will see us extend our involvement with each other, to a 10 year relationship. This extension of Three’s sponsorship of the Republic of Ireland national football team will bring us through qualifying for the World Cup 2018 in Russia, and up to the historic UEFA EURO Finals 2020, which will come to Ireland for the very first time.
“This agreement between the FAI and Three, across all of our national teams, will continue to build on what has been a very successful commercial and sporting partnership, and one that helps safeguard the future of football from grassroots right up to international level.”
The announcement comes just ahead of Ireland’s two-legged play-off against Bosnia-Herzegovina (on Friday and Monday) for a place in the Euro 2016 finals.
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