ONE MORE THING:TULLOW OIL'S Irish chief executive Aidan Heavey is a big football fan. His office is littered with football and framed jerseys from Irish players.

So it is probably no surprise that he has hooked up with Niall Quinn and English Premier League club Sunderland as founding partners of the Invest in Africa initiative.

This week, the pair kicked off the project in Ghana, where Tullow has significant assets. Heavey wants to net five other founding partners from the international business community to promote Africa as a place to invest and develop skills.

Having stepped down as Sunderland chairman last year, Quinn’s role at the club now involves international business development. Sunderland will no doubt be hoping to unearth the next Michael Essien or Yaya Touré, while attracting new fans to the club from the region.

“We look forward to growing and developing the partnership in the coming months,” Quinn said.

Heavey said the deal with Sunderland would allow it to get the “message to a global audience”.

Fortunately for Heavey, Sunderland has been on a good run of form in the Premier League since Derryman Martin O’Neill took over as manager a couple of months back.

There wouldn’t be much global appeal to Sunderland if it were relegated to the less glamourous Championship.