‘Embracing avant technology must for IFA’

Article posted by Coliseum, March 6^th, 2026

Image: Coliseum GSVA

Technology runs in the lineage of Thomas Fulton, an effervescent person, who is in a key tech role with the Irish Football Association (IFA).

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Thomas Fulton is a distinguished technology leader with over 25 years of experience including more than eight years at the Irish Football Association where he serves as the Head of Technology. Based in Belfast, Fulton drives the Association’s information technology (IT) strategy and digital transformation aligning the advanced technologies with its strategic vision.

In an exclusive with ‘Coliseum’, Thomas Fulton, Head of Technology, Irish FA, shares that when he joined the Irish Football Association (IFA) he had to change the “hearts and minds of the people to move away from a paper exercise to the digital mode and when you go around Northern Ireland you meet people who have been involved in football for 40-50 years and they did not want to turn digital but wanted the traditional method of driving 20 miles and getting that paper signature to get your players sign for your team.”

Irish Football Association

The Irish Football Association (IFA) is the governing body for association football in Northern Ireland. The Ireland national football team was under its purview from 1880 to 1950 after which it became the Northern Ireland national football team. Its headquarters is in Windsor Park, Belfast, Northern Ireland (UK).

Thomas Fulton started off, “A lot of fans in Belfast are following the Northern Irish football club like the Crusaders F.C. and the Premier League team Leeds United F.C. When you work with the Irish Football Association you get to know how the players are developed and the Player Pathway.”

Windsor Park

The 18,500-capacity National Football Stadium at Windsor Park (officially the Clearer Twist National Stadium at Windsor Park for sponsorship reasons) or the National Football Stadium, also known as the Windsor Park is a football stadium in Belfast, Northern Ireland (UK).

Added Fulton, “We redeveloped the stadium – Windsor Park – in 2015-2016 – and I worked as a technical support for all the Union of European Football Association (UEFA) games at our stadium and coordinated the ball boys, coordinated the media, the broadcasters, and just all of them. We need WiFi upgrade and minimal requirements for the broadcasters. I had a big task in my hand when there were lots and lots of different technology to consider for the Windsor Park and new responsibilities and one thing I came across was the Irish Football Association and it is like walking into the old man’s club. I had to act fast and learn about tradition, heritage and governance. The Irish Football Association is the fourth oldest football association in the world and I had to work on introducing cutting-edge technology in our clubs and also make the Irish Football Association tech-friendly.”

“When you have a digital format it is easier to pull up data and manage your data and to tell them in the nicest way to stop the traditional way was quite hard. I kind of work on myself and I work on logic quite a lot because coming back on the Internet point and when you are trying to get something from A to B it is the same principle on football when you are looking at the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) and the goal line technology and the big screen content, hospitality, Wi-Fi, and broadcast and we are just trying to get some information from one point to the next and if you think logically it is the same principle for football and especially in football you have to be conscious of the stakeholders and the people that you want to attract to your football club or your stadium.”

Continued Fulton, “I had to learn up pretty quick the applications and transition to different applications and any new applications software recommended was my idea to teach the people and I have been doing that all my life. I have been rebuilding, thinking with equipment and a lot of switches, wireless points and I think you have to do it in such a way to sell it to someone and to sell it to your colleagues and embrace technology.”

Wind-up

Concluded Thomas Fulton, “The fan engagement is really important and a lot of the enablers focusing on fan engagement rely on technology and our fans are not just going to be sitting and watching the game but they are going to be engaged with a piece of hardware relating to the game, looking at the stats, interactive stuff and trying to just do that engagement. At times the technology is just going to push its way through and we need to embrace that or you would lose the fans. We want the fans to come into our stadium and technology is a game changer.”

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