EA SPORTS LOI Academy Conference, Media Officer Workshop and SLO Workshop held
The League of Ireland held a series of Workshops and Conferences ahead of the new 2024 season at the Aviva Stadium this weekend.
Our second annual EA SPORTS LOI Academy Conference took place last Saturday, 20 January. Over 150 LOI Academy delegates attended this year’s event.
Mike Geoghegan (Waterford FC), Liam Kearney (Cork City), Ger O’Brien (St Patrick’s Athletic) & Aidan Price presented on a number of Player Development areas including Athletic Development, Additional Games Programme, Education & Player Performance Data whilst Keith Long (Waterford FC) & Laura Heffernan (DLR Waves) participated in a panel discussion primarily focused on the transition on players from the academy to first team football.
Additionally over 86 coaches received their UEFA C Licence and 30 coaches received their UEFA Leaders Licence also as part of the LOI Academy Coach Development Programme 2023 at the Conference too.
We also hosted all Clubs’ Media Officers from the League of Ireland’s three Divisions in the Aviva Stadium for the 2024 Media Officer Workshop. We went through a host of different areas where good in-depth discussions were had on a number of different topics.
This included 2024 planning, League of Ireland branding across all touch-points in the Clubs, social media updates, accreditation, our partnership with Sportsfile and the input from the Soccer Writers. We also looked at changes to Participation Agreement affecting Media Officers, LOITV, TV broadcasts, Club branding and updates for FAI Connect.
Above all, it was excellent to have all the Media Officers in the same room ahead of the 2024 season where great relationships were extended even further.
Supporter Liaison Officers from across the League attended a three-hour 2024 SLO pre-season Workshop to plan for the year ahead.
The Workshop built on several of the themes from the UEFA Academy Training which SLOs undertook in 2023. SLOs discussed several topics around the Role of the SLO, training requirements and plans for the 2024 season.
SLOs will meet again in April for their next SLO Network Meeting.
Also held this weekend were the Elite Referee and Referee Observer Seminar and Medical Seminar in preparation for the new season.
