SERGIO RAMOS’S rueful glance backwards at the penalty spot after he blazed over a spot kick for Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final penalty shoot-out on Wednesday night at the Bernabeu Stadium cut little ice with Sligo man George Mullan, whose company installed the pitch two years ago.
“It was nothing to do with the pitch,” Mullan told me yesterday.
“It was the same in 2008 when John Terry missed the penalty in the final [in Moscow] between Chelsea and Manchester United. He was blaming the pitch for slipping.”
As it happens, Support in Sport Group Ireland will be replacing the Bernabeu pitch for Real Madrid in July.
In all, Mullan has secured €22 million in contracts for this year. He expects SIS to report revenues of €35 million in 2012 – it was €27 million last year – with profits of more than €3 million.
SIS has won a €2 million contract in Uzbekistan to build a natural grass pitch and three full-size synthetic pitches.
Sales in Azerbaijan will exceed €5 million this year, with the company set to install two pitches for the Fifa Women’s Under-17 World Cup. “We are focusing on ex-Soviet republics where they are spending a lot of money building new sports facilities,” he said.
