Irish firm to build Barcelona training pitch

AN IRISH company has won a contract to provide a state-of-the-art training pitch surface to European champions Barcelona.

Support in Sport (SIS) staved off competition from other multi-national sports companies to win the contract with one of Europe’s top soccer clubs.

Work on the pitch, which involves resurfacing the pitch with 8,500m2 of natural grass from the SIS’s purpose-grown turf farm in Germany, begins this week.

The process will take 48 hours, due to the deployment of unique equipment invented by the company.

The company has already installed three pitches for clubs in the Spanish league, La Liga, over the last 12 months.

Founded in 2001, SIS has offices in Ireland, Britain, the Netherlands, Turkey and the Middle East.

The company, which is run by Sligo man George Mullan, designs and builds sports surfaces for a wide range of sporting venues ranging from international stadiums to community projects. It employs 80 people.

Turnover at SIS increased by 25 per cent last year, from €21.7 million in 2010 to €27.1 million in 2011.

Profits at the company, which has no borrowings, is expected to exceed €2.3 million for 2011.

Last month, SIS was selected by British government agency Sport England to complete projects in the UK, a contract which will lead to multi-million euro growth for the company in 2012, according to Mr Mullan.

He said the company had received a number of approaches from top football clubs and sports organisations since the Sport England announcement, and was in the latter stages of negotiation to install pitches for some of the Champions League teams ahead of the 2012-2013 season.

SIS expects turnover to reach €40 million in 2012.