How an Irish company's pitches are used at the World Cup

While Ireland may not be at the World Cup, an Irish company has made its impact felt on pitches across the tournament.

Irish company SIS Pitches’ advanced sports pitch technology is in action across the tournament.

It is contributing to high-performance playing surfaces across nine of the 16 host stadiums at the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico — including the venue for the final.

SIS Pitches was set up in 2001 by Sligo man George Mullan, who is currently chairman of the global company.

Speaking to BreakingNews.ie, Mullan could not have imagined the success of the company when it was set up 25 years ago.

"We started off in Holland, and then we moved to the UK. We did a reasonable amount of big tournaments like the Champions League, but never really thought about the World Cup.

"We got heavily involved in Russia, when we built six of the 12 pitches, and we also maintained some of the stadiums. In Qatar, we did a lot of the training pitches and the stadiums.

"We have a good relationship with FIFA. If we say we are going to do something, we do it. If we make a mistake, we fix it."

For people watching at home, it may not be clear what would be a SIS pitch, but Mullan explains what sets their work apart from the rest.

"The biggest difference in the World Cup is that it is mandatory that they have a hybrid system, where we put five per cent fibre in the pitch.

"You can have that in a stitched form, or in a carpet form. Ours are stitched. We have competitors who also do that, but we build pitches from nothing.

"We are designing and building all the time. Most of our competitors are stitching; they are not actually building pitches. We look after three million square metres of grass around the world.

"We