The GAA’s Management Committee has referred the association’s partnership with Allianz to Croke Park’s recently established Ethics and Integrity Committee.
The GAA’s sponsorship arrangements with Allianz have come under scrutiny in recent months after the global insurer was named in a United Nations report as one of the companies said to be aiding Israel’s war in Gaza.
Allianz’s sponsorship of the GAA’s National Football Leagues stretches back to 1993 and is one of the longest partnerships in Irish sport. In January it was announced that Allianz had renewed its league sponsorship up to 2030.
Allianz has also been one of the title sponsors of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship since 2023 and in May of this year an extension of that link for a further three years was confirmed.
RM Block
Allianz also has partnerships with Cumann na mBunscol and the Camogie Association.
Following a meeting of the GAA’s Management Committee over the weekend, the Ethics and Integrity Committee will now review the arrangement with Allianz.
The Ethics and Integrity Committee was formed earlier this year, its function being to “oversee, promote and investigate (where necessary) ethical and integrity standards in relation to Association and Member activity, other than Misconduct at Games by Players or Team Officials, either of its own volition or on foot of a referral to it by any Unit.”
Allianz was one of several companies named in a June report by the UN’s special rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese. The report claimed Pimco (which is owned by Allianz) was a significant buyer of Israeli treasury bonds.
An open letter asking for the GAA to cut ties with Allianz was signed by almost 800 current and former players from all Gaelic codes. The letter was hand-delivered to Croke Park officials by several of the signatories last month, including Colm O’Rourke, Shane McGuigan, David Hickey and Paschal Canavan.
The weekend meeting of the Management Committee also grated permission to Galway GAA to host six Galway United soccer games at Pearse Stadium.
