IRISH HOCKEY HAS been here before. Rewind four years and the governing body was unable to fund a trip to the Champions Challenge tournament in Argentina.
The players took it upon themselves to spearhead a fundraising campaign. The hockey fraternity who, unwilling to even consider the prospect of pulling the plug, rallied together and put their hands in their pockets.
A matter of weeks and €45,000 later, Ireland finished third and embarked on the road to Rio.
Now, just four months out from becoming the first Irish team to compete at the Games in 108 years, the self-proclaimed ‘Green Machine’ find themselves in a similarly desperate situation.
After falling some €225,000 short of their sponsorship target, the onus has now been placed on the organisation and its players to find the finances to support their preparations for Rio.
“It’s a culmination of a few factors that we find ourselves sitting here,” captain David Harte tells The42.
“When the Irish Hockey association and our head coach went to the Sports Council and the Government and put a pitch to them to say this is the money we require in order to run our high performance programme for Rio, we came up short.
“As Irish hockey players we’ve learned to deal with this kind of distraction so it’s nothing out of the blue or nothing new to us. Last year, which was our most successful year, we still had to organise and fundraise ourselves.”
If truth be told, it’s a scarcely believable state of affairs. Despite the team’s unprecedented success and their impending appearance on the biggest sporting stage, no corporate sponsor has been enticed on board.
“If I had the answer I would tell you now and we’d hopefully have it solved months ago,” Harte says of the lack of sponsorship.
“I’m not entirely sure to be completely honest. As a player within the group, we’re just trying to focus on nothing but training and getting ourselves in the best physical condition of our lives to compete at the Olympic Games.
“What happens off the pitch we’re aware of, but to a certain extent we’re not entirely sure of the in-depth conversations and negotiations which are going on.
“You could say it’s a distraction but we always try and put a positive spin on it and it actually gets the group closer together and working together off the pitch too.”
At this stage, the ‘Obsessed’ campaign has raised close to €17,000. There is a long way to go and coach Craig Fulton admits it’s difficult to hide the frustration.
“I would be lying if I said it wasn’t frustrated,” he says. “It is lastminute.com and we tried to pull this off a lot earlier but it didn’t happen. It’s the reality of it and it’s where we are at.
“But we don’t want this to detract from the celebration of qualifying because sometimes it does.”
AtomicWIP / Vimeo
With 22 games between now and the Games, Ireland’s preparations are continuing uninterrupted. The programme has been signed off but funding is needed to ensure that, when all is said and done, Hockey Ireland doesn’t find itself thousands of Euro in the red.
“Believe me when I say every single one of the group and squad are so grateful for every euro and every cent which is being put our way and it’s not an ideal situation but it is what it is,” Harte adds.
“We need to get outside the hockey public. There’s a certain amount of frustration but also a sense of realism because we are at the stage where hockey within Ireland is still a minority.
“What we’re trying to do is get out the fact that Ireland does have a senior men’s hockey team preparing for the Olympics.”
Ireland will play four fixtures against Korea in Dublin later this month while Canada arrive on these shores for four games in June. The home fixture list concludes in July with two outings against Netherlands in Cork.
“We’ve worked incredibly hard to get here and now we have to ensure that our players are in the best possible shape and prepared in every way to compete with the world’s best at an Olympic Games,” Fulton concludes.
You can visit the fundraising page here.
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Charlie Adam all day long. I thought Mata’s scissors kick was worthy of a nomination though.
Charlie Austin’s would be in my top 5 and its not even here. That one touch turn and strike was sweet
Yeah Charlie Austin’s was a class goal,definitely should be there. Charlie Adam’s for goal of the season though.
Ya maybe your right but the fact that he always tries it and it’s not off the cuff just makes it less special I feel. Austin’s, for example, was sheer instinct.
Search on youtube “Di Maria Manchester United” some of his crosses and assists there are amazing. He fully deserves another chance to prove his worth at United!
Definitely. His form dipped when he returned from injury. Happens to a lot of players. Even though his form dipped, only cesc has more assists than him. Makes me wonder what might have been had he avoided the injury.
It’s got to be Charlie Adam. Although Phillips is in with a shout. If a top player scored that we’d still be talking about it – you don’t often see 45 yard screamers- it wasn’t a looping shot but a belter from that distance rising all the way.
If public polls are anything to go by, Giroud will win this poll by a mile :P
Lads Matty Philips was over 40 yards out!! No contest.
Thought longs goal against villa would have been in the top 10
Love Zamora’s one. Outside of the boot, quality
Schurrle overhead ? Hard to do it at the best of times but he had to set this one up himself by taking it on the chest first . That would be my choice
Fabregas vs Burnley should atleast be nominated surely??