Guinness have announced a five-year extension to its sponsorship of the All-Ireland hurling championships. Details of the renewal, which is worth £10 million between the sponsorship and its promotion, were announced in the Radisson Hotel in Dublin yesterday.

One of the most widely recognised sports sponsorships, it dates back to 1995 when the original three-year deal was announced. It was renewed for a further two years in 1997 and yesterday's arrangement will bring the duration of the partnership up to 10 years by the conclusion date of 2004.

Over the first five years of the arrangement, Guinness invested £7 million and that figure has increased by nearly 50 per cent for the five years ahead.

It is believed that the agreement breaks down as an initial period of three years followed by an option of a further two, with either party free to opt out at that stage.

Announcing the renewal, Brian Duffy, managing director Guinness Ireland Group, said that the sponsorship was now the biggest undertaken by the company in Ireland. "There is little doubt that it has been spectacularly successful," he said.

The period of the sponsorship has coincided with a phase of remarkable growth in hurling. Attendances have nearly doubled and television audiences have also shot up. In addition to the substantial cash injections, Guinness have also provided promotional back-up.

"The GAA always said that they welcomed our marketing expertise as much as our monetary input," said Duffy, "and I am happy to report that is how we will be continuing in the future."

As part of that marketing programme, Guinness state that they will focus on a major national advertising campaign on both television and radio, a promotional programme in local areas and development of the Guinness Hurling website which showed last year's final live to a global audience of 80,000.

At the end of his address, Duffy presented Joe McDonagh with an original portrait of the outgoing president, specially commissioned from Dublin artist Jim Harkin - to "remind him of our friendship and gratitude for many years to come".

McDonagh thanked Guinness for "the lovely gesture and I appreciate it enormously. It is a great pleasure to finish my term with one of my last official functions here today."

Reflecting on the progress of the sponsorship, he said that it had been successful on a number of levels, not all of which were high-profile.

He mentioned the achievements of the Sceim Iomana initiative which he himself launched in April of two years ago in an attempt to emulate the development scheme launched by one of his predecessors the late Alf Murray in 1965.

"This has been an investment not into concrete and steel and stone but into human resources and the development of the game, including the opportunity afforded us to introduce the £2.5 million investment under Sceim Iomana, Hurling into 2000 and the review of that scheme which has indicated to us that we have increased numbers by approximately 70,000 young first-time hurlers."

The 1960s scheme was particularly successful in Galway but in order to emphasise that there are no overnight remedies for the spreading of the game, McDonagh pointed out that there was a gap of 15 years between the time he believed Celtic crosses belonged only in Cork, Tipperary and Kilkenny and the year in which Galway finally won their breakthrough All-Ireland in 1980. He also said that the GAA was not complacent about the future. "I say that in the context of the future and the worries that some people have. They have been quite clearly recognised by the Hurling Development Committee and the competitive structures put in place to increase the profile of the game which they have done."

Finally, he paid tribute to Brian Browne, Guinness's National Sponsorship Manager, who retires next December. "His support (for the sponsorship) more than anything else helped the GAA come to grips with the challenges posed by the end of one century and the beginning of another."

The Leitrim County Board, which met last night, is expected to announce today whether it will appeal over the defeat by Offaly in the National Football League last Sunday. Although they lost by a goal, Leitrim felt that referee Eugene Murtagh whistled full time at least 90 seconds before the end of normal time.