Cork City to play Celtic at Páirc Uí Chaoimh this summer

Cork GAA is to host a soccer match at Supervalu Páirc Uí Chaoimh this summer between current Scottish champions Celtic and local League of Ireland side Cork City to help fund the upgrade of the stadium.

The game will be only the third time a soccer match has been played at the stadium, which was redeveloped in 2017 at a cost of more than €96 million and which last year had debts of more than €30 million. Cork GAA is hoping that the match will sell out the 45,000-capacity venue.

Cork GAA chief executive Kevin O’Donovan said: “This is another opportunity to share our stadium with the world and help show Cork as an excellent destination for sports tourism. We are fortunate that one of the world’s most successful soccer teams has agreed to return to Cork.

“We have been engaging with Cork City FC to ensure that both sets of fans really enjoy the experience. Every event such as this generates funding streams that we can reinvest in the stadium, and in our own games, so everyone wins.”

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The match will be on July 8th and will be for the Cork Super Cup, a joint initiative between Cork GAA and sports marketing agency Druid Sport and is estimated that the economic return from the fixture could be in the region of €6 million.

The organisers hope thousands of Irish and Scottish Celtic fans will make the journey to Páirc Uí Chaoimh, which in 2018 hosted a crowd of 43,000 for a game between a Manchester Utd Legends XI and a Celtic/Republic of Ireland XI to raise funds for the family of the late Liam Miller.

That was the first time that a soccer match was played at the venue, and it was followed last year on July 16th when the Republic of Ireland’s Women’s team beat France 3-1 in a European Championship qualifier game before a crowd of 18,000.

In 2022, the stadium hosted the largest ever crowd to attend a rugby match in Munster when Munster beat South Africa by 28-14 in front of 41,400. Last year the ground hosted a friendly where Munster beat the Crusaders 21-19 before a crowd of 40,885.

Three years ago, O’Donovan said that concerts would also be a major stream of funding for the stadium and, since it reopened, it has seen stars such as Rod Stewart, Ed Sheeran, Elton John and Bruce Springsteen play near sell-out concerts.

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers, who played hurling and football growing up in Carnlough, Co Antrim, said he was delighted to be bringing his team to Páirc Uí Chaoimh for what promises to be a hugely attractive game for the club’s fans.

“We will be visiting a great stadium in a fine city, and we are sure the game will be a wonderful occasion. Celtic’s Irish connections are very important to the club and we are sure there will be huge interest in the match.

“From my own perspective it will be great to be going home to Ireland but also from a footballing side we are really looking forward to the match against Cork City, which will be an important part of our preparations for next season.”

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers says the match against Cork City will be an important part of his team's preseaon preparation. Photograph: Steve Welsh/PA Wire

The Super Cup trophy was designed by Cork and St Finbarr’s hurling legend Gerald McCarthy, who captained the Cork hurlers to both senior and u-21 success in 1966, launching a career that saw him win five senior All-Ireland hurling medals.

Cork City manager Tim Clancy, who knows Scottish football well from stints as a player at Kilmarnock, Motherwell, St Johnstone and Hibernian, said Cork City were lucky to have a great fan base and he was confident that supporters would turn out in force to welcome Celtic to Leeside.

“We know they will turn out in force to show Celtic what the Rebel Army is capable of. We have enjoyed incredible support since the start of the Premier Division season, and the opportunity to play a fantastic team in Celtic at an iconic setting is one both the team and the fans can look forward to.”

Irish international Adam Idah, the sixth Cork player after Miller, Roy Keane, Colin Healy, Eoghan O’Connell and Jim Foley to play for Celtic, said he was looking forward to playing at Cork GAA HQ as his only sporting involvement at the ground was when he took part in the Cork City School Sports there.

“I played hurling and football with Douglas GAA club, but I never played hurling or football at Páirc Uí Chaoimh so the chance to come back and play there with Celtic is something I’m obviously looking forward to – it will be great to have the Cork fans and Celtic fans there.

“Back in the day, nobody would have thought that you would have a soccer match in Páirc Uí Chaoimh and when I left to go cross-channel, I didn’t think I would be playing soccer in Cork again so to play on Leeside again and to do it in Páirc Uí Chaoimh with Celtic is fantastic.”

O’Mahony said that the ticket prices would be structured so as to make it attractive for families to attend much as Cork GAA had done for the two Munster rugby matches

“Ticket prices are all very reasonable across a range on pre-sale on Wednesday – prices are intentionally pitched at a lower level in order to get as many people in as possible,” said O’Donovan, adding game is not Uefa sanctioned so the terraces will be open for standing fans.

Tickets for the game will go on general sale, including a limited number of family tickets, via www.corksupercup.com and Ticketmaster from 9am on Friday morning, March 7th.