Legal remedy sought to sideline FAI deal

ATTORNEY General Rory Brady has been asked by the Government to review all legislation, including EU rules, which could impinge on the controversial FAI Sky TV deal, it emerged last night.

The Government yesterday discussed the ongoing row over the soccer association’s decision last week to sell the rights to Rupert Murdoch’s television network for 7.5 million euro. The move means home internationals cannot be carried on RTÉ or other non-subscription channels.

“The AG has been asked to look at all the legislation in question, including the EU laws. He has been asked to report back next week,” a Government spokesperson said last night. But there appeared to be no great optimism that the deal could be set aside or substantially varied.

The initiative follows suggestions in legal circles that a 1997 EU directive, transposed into Irish law in 1999, offers scope for the Government to make the games available to non-subscription channels like RTÉ.

The EU law sets out a mechanism where events of special importance can be specially designated and thus incapable of being bought exclusively by a subscription channel.

Communications lecturer, Dr Roddy Flynn, yesterday said the Government could in fact retrospectively designate the home soccer internationals in this way.

Dr Flynn also rejected Government suggestions that whole tournaments, rather than individual games or events, could not be designated in this way. He said other EU countries including Britain, Italy and Germany had given special designation to both the European Championships and the World Cup in their entirety.

The communications lecturer said Government assertions that they could not undermine the bargaining power of sporting organisations to sell television rights were not accurate. He said the EU law was specifically designed to prevent the sale of broadcast rights to popular sporting events and exclude the ordinary fans’ access.

Given that the Republic of Ireland’s first home game is against Switzerland on October 16, time is now running very short indeed. The FAI has already indicated that this game may be shown on one of the non-subscription Sky channels.

The Cabinet discussion yesterday followed the Taoiseach’s statements that he was disappointed that ordinary fans were being deprived of an opportunity of supporting their national side in the forthcoming European Championships qualifying rounds. Mr Ahern has also asked Communications Minister, Dermot Ahern, and Sports Minister, John O’Donoghue, to examine the issues involved.

Rupert Murdoch’s media empire includes the mass circulation English newspapers, News of the World, Sunday Times and The Sun.