Shorts: Irish Fa, Surrey Cricket, Thornaby FC
The Irish Football Association has extended its partnership with communications provider Onecom.
Previously Onecom was the title sponsor of the Onecom Business League run by Northern Ireland’s national governing body for football.
Stuart McAlpine, Business Sales Director at Onecom, said, “We are delighted to continue our long-standing partnership with the Irish FA and wish all the association’s teams every success in the coming 2024-25 season.
“The vision and values of both organisations are very much aligned, and we look forward to working with the Irish FA for many years to come.”
Stephen Garrett, Senior Commercial Manager at the Irish FA, added, “Onecom has been a valued partner of the association for several years and the extension of the partnership agreement between the two organisations is very welcome.”
Surrey County Cricket Club (CCC) has signed a three-year partnership with St Mary’s University, Twickenham (SMU).
As part of the agreement, Surrey CCC and SMU will collaborate by sharing and facilitating sports science research. Surrey CCC will use the sports science facilities at SMU for screening activities, whilst SMU researchers will be able to access the indoor training facilities at The Kia Oval.
Students at SMU will also benefit from potential placement opportunities at Surrey CCC in performance analysis, strength and conditioning and other related fields within the elite sporting environment.
Alec Stewart, Director of Cricket at Surrey CCC, said, “St Mary’s University is an industry leader in the field of sports science and research, and we are delighted to be entering into a strategic partnership with them.
“Data and sports science play a big part in modern-day cricket, and we always aim to be forward-thinking and innovative at Surrey Cricket. I look forward to working with the fantastic team at St Mary’s University.”
Women’s football merchandiser Foudys has designed a new t-shirt to raise funds for Thornaby FC after the woman’s section of the club was axed earlier this week.
Last week, Thornaby FC announced their committee had voted to axe its entire woman’s football section, reportedly due to financial issues, leaving 100 woman and girls without a club.
In an interview with BBC news, seven-year- old Lily, a player in The Thornaby FC Under 9’s reacted to the news by saying, ‘‘If girls want to play football you can’t just not let them. ‘
Sue Anstiss, Founder of the Women’s Sport Collective, mentioned how Lily’s words should be on a t-shirt. Within 24 hours, Foudys designed a t-shirt for sale, with all proceeds going to Thornaby FC Women and girls to ‘secure their future.’
Following the community’s reaction to Thornaby FC’s decision, several of the football club Directors have stepped down.
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