The anatomy of a tournament

Four stages
Stanfield, the IFA's head of competition services, served as the tournament director at this year's U19 finals, and gave a detailed breakdown of the work required to make the tournament a success. "It can be split into four stages," he explained. "There's the planning and the preparation of the bid, the work before the finals, during the finals and then after the event."

SWOT analysis
The first of these stages was broken down into a SWOT analysis by which an organisation can begin planning and is helped to focus on key issues, in terms of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats - an assessment of need and a feasibility study. In this case the SWOT analysis gives an association the chance to weigh up the pros and cons of bidding for the finals, and assessing whether the potential benefits outweigh the possible problems.

Pre-finals work
The next factor in preparing the bid is to identify the reasons for hosting, the basic infrastructure - in terms of potential venues, training facilities and hotel options - the development programme and possible funding partners. Assuming the bid is successful, the next stage is the work that is carried out before the finals, which involves securing funding and sponsorship, establishing a management company and a working relationship with UEFA, transport and medical concepts and a marketing strategy.

Promotional campaign
Throughout his presentation, Stanfield used his experience from last summer's U19 showpiece to illustrate his points. He talked in detail of the marketing aspect, which incorporated a detailed advertising and promotional campaign on television and radio around the Belfast region and also posters.

During and after
During the tournament itself, he continued, event management was crucial to ensure everyone held clearly defined roles, every area was dealt with and potential problems were swiftly and efficiently dealt with. Finally came the post-event evaluation, which assessed its impact and whether it had been a success or not. Stanfield said a number of questions had to be answered in order for this to be achieved; had opportunities been exploited, needs met, good publicity received, an impact made on the local community. Most important of all is the legacy that is left behind, said Stanfield before concluding that, happily, under these criteria, the U19 finals in Northern Ireland had been a success.