EFC Delegation's Visit to ESCNI (2015)
Date: Friday, 13th February 2015
Venue: Holiday Inn, central Belfast
Guestlist:
- Darren Griffiths (Compere and Media & Publications Manager)
- Brian Doogan (Head of Media)
- Christine Prior (Supporter Liaison Officer & Away Fan Ambassador)
- Ryan Dickinson (EFC
Camerman/Video Editor)
- Graham Stuart (EFC Ambassador – ex player)
- Ronny Goodlass (EFC Ambassador – ex player)
Report on Everton FC’s Visit to ESCNI (2015)
The event, itself, was compered by Everton's Darren Griffiths, and he was as professional as ever.
Darren began the evening with a short chat with Brian Doogan (Everton's new Head of Media) who, incidentally, is a native of Lisnaskea.
This chat focused primarily on the importance of the stadium development.
After that, Darren turned to the two Everton Ambassadors (Graham Stuart and Ronny Goodlass) and for the remainder of the first half, various discussions took place.
The subjects included an inquest into the recent Chelsea away match, the standard of refereeing (including unrepeatable references to Pierluiga Collina and Clive Thomas!), the current team's overall performances, the Europa League and Aaron Lennon.
The second half was a Q&A session with various members asking questions.
The subjects included such topics as stadium development, Romelu Lukaku’s current form, ticket prices, the club’s ethos, the Kitbag deal (and its problems), club finances, the Robles/Howard dilemma, modern fooball (is it a sport or a business?), team rotation policy, value of radio commentaries, football pundits and Samuel Eto’o.
The event closed with a prize draw (won by Martin Hughes) for a signed shirt provided by Everton; and the Everton guests were presented with various souvenirs of their visit to Belfast by the ESCNI Chairman.
Everton's Christine Prior was on hand to distribute various Everton gifts to those present, and the event was filmed for Everton TV (by Ryan Dickinson).
Afterwards, the Everton guests stayed on to chat, provide autographs and to have their pictures taken with those ESCNI members in attendance.
We hope everyone enjoyed the evening, and felt that it was worthwhile to attend.
There were around 50 ESCNI members in attendance; perhaps a lower number than we would have liked, but the event was organised at rather short notice.
(16 Feb)
Everton's own video of the event is shown below...