2015 SSE Airtricity League launched at Aviva Stadium

Friday morning saw the launch of this seasons SSE Airtricity League in the Aviva Stadium where representatives of all 20 teams were present to usher in the start of the new League of Ireland season.

The morning started off on a sombre note as a minute silence was observed as a mark of respect for Irish Times sports correspondent Carl O’Malley, who died suddenly hours before at the  age of 36.

RTE’s Con Murphy was on hand to MC the launch and a short promo video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxJBgvU4iok) was played to the assembled media which really generated a buzz around the room as everyone became impatient waiting for the football to be played again.

When Fran Gavin the FAI’s Director of Competitions took to the podium he gave us all some encouraging news as the FAI begin to actively seek new commercial partners for the league. Gavin also revealed that not only were attendances at matches up slightly but the viewership of RTE’s Soccer Republic had increased by 34%.

Fran Gavin also announced that the FAI is to undertake a consultation process for the SSE Airtricity League which will involve all stakeholders in the domestic game, the clubs, the media, the supporters, the general public and many other groups. The process will be headed Declan Conroy who led the successful Europa League and Euro 2020 bids. It will start next week and, as part of the process, every club will be met individually and the public will also be invited to express their views. The process will take a couple of months to complete and the details will be communicated to clubs on Monday.

"There are two objectives: to get views on how the clubs and the league currently operates and also to get opinions on how the clubs and the league can move forward. I am sure there will be lots of different opinions but we want to hear them. This League has a big heritage and we need to work hard and work together if we are to make it strong for the future,"

Stephen Wheeler MD of SSE Airtricity was passionate about how committed SSE Airtricity are to the domestic game and he showed it too as their sponsorship will continue for at least two more seasons.

A new national advertising campaign was also unveiled which will use #FanPoweredFootball to spread across social media.

RTE and Setanta Sports will also continue their live coverage of matches during the season and RTE has also committed to covering the SSE Airtricity League each week during the season through their popular football programme, Soccer Republic, which will commence on Monday, March 9, at 11:05 on RTÉ2.

As always extratime.ie will be here with you for every kick of the 2015 season both in print and through our podcast. While you can also follow us on our award winning twitter page @ExtratimeNews or if you fancy you can like us on facebook.