Annoyed FAI considers Sky deal with TV3
It is possible that such a suggestion would be considered by Sky only if the agreed fee of 7.5 million for four years of exclusive coverage of Ireland’s matches was re-negotiated downwards.
FAI officials were always prepared to accept less than Sky offered to allow the matches to be broadcast on RTE, provided the offer from the national broadcaster was reasonable.
RTE’s derisory offer of 400,000 a year for four years was so far short of what was available that it effectively drove the FAI into the arms of Sky.
And now the FAI is determined not to do business with RTE.
It remains to be seen whether Sky will listen to any overtures from the FAI, who is anxious to comply with the Government’s request to reopen negotiations with Sky to maintain live transmission of Ireland’s matches on terrestrial television.
The FAI accepts that the agreement with Sky is legally binding.
Its legal advisors have advised it so, and that Sky is not prepared to surrender its right to live transmission of the matches.
Sky has been a constant presence at Ireland’s training camps for years, with reporter Fraser Robertson producing daily reports and interviews before all of Ireland’s matches.
Mr Robertson led the Sky team to Japan and Korea to follow Ireland’s fortunes at the World Cup.
It is no surprise to those close to the Irish international scene or the FAI that Sky was prepared to bid for the rights to televise Ireland’s matches.
The bluster of RTE executives following the announcement of the agreement with Sky, and the biased coverage of the story on RTE radio and television over the past week, have hardened FAI officials’ attitude to RTE.
FAI officials were also angered by RTE suggestions that its offer of 400,000 a year was not a final offer.
The offer was put in writing to FAI officials before they travelled to Asia for the World Cup, and after talks between RTE and the FAI's agent to negotiate its television deals, Laurence St John.
There are FAI officials who question whether RTE is not privately pleased at the fall-out from the agreement with Sky, because it has brought into sharp focus RTE’s attempt to secure Government agreement on a increase in the licence fee.
“Why should people be so surprised that RTE have lost the football internationals?” said one FAI source, who did not want to be identified.
“They lost the Champions’ League matches a couple of years ago and also lost Coronation Street, so this fits into a pattern,” they said.
“How could they possibly hope to secure the rights to Ireland’s matches by offering more than 200,000 a year less than they paid over the past four years?
“We are not a charitable organisation.
“Surely in any meaningful negotiations, you start where you finished your last agreement and try to hold as close to those terms as possible if you are buying.
“Instead of that, they offered less and were not interested in offering the FAI any encouragement about coverage of the domestic football scene.”
RTE’s unbalanced coverage of the story over the past week on all programmes has further exacerbated the FAI's anger.
In particular, it is annoyed at RTE’s repeated suggestions that its offer was not “a final offer”.
The FAI questions whether RTE was to make a reasonable offer.
The FAI is anxious to respond to the Government’s pressure and to the huge reaction of the public, annoyed at having to subscribe to Sky or to a subscription company to see the matches live.
It sees a possible solution by extending its agreement with TV3 on coverage of the domestic scene to allow for simultaneous broadcast of the matches with Sky.
TV3 already has an agreement that allows delayed broadcast of Ireland’s matches and the FAI hopes Sky will accept a broadening of this agreement even if it has to drop money as a result.
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