RTÉ secures match rights

AFTER a couple of days of uncertainty and hours of laborious negotiation, RTÉ announced yesterday evening that it has secured the rights to broadcast live, Ireland’s vital Euro 2004 qualifier with Georgia in Tblisi on Saturday.

Initially, it had been feared that Irish football fans may be unable to see the first meaningful match of Brian Kerr’s nascent reign on their TV screens.

However, after days of trying negotiations with Sport Five, a Paris-based sports marketing company, RTÉ acquired the rights to Saturday’s game and Ireland’s final qualifying match, away to Switzerland on October 11.

It is understood that both RTÉ and TV3 were competing for the rights, but the asking price was a major stumbling block in any talks. Sportfive, a company spawned by the merger of UFA, Jean-Claude Darmon and the Canal+ group in December 2001, was in a powerful bargaining position and used it to frustrate the two television networks.

As TV3 have the rights to transmit Ireland’s home games on a delayed basis, anxiety was greater on RTÉ’s part to gain the rights to the match.

As Kerr’s first meaningful match, the audience is guaranteed and it will now be advertised as a bumper weekend of sport, with the Lansdowne Road Six Nations showdown on Sunday.

“We’re delighted to be able to confirm that Irish viewers will be able to see Saturday’s game as well as the match against Switzerland in October,” said RTÉ head of sport, Niall Cogley.

“After protracted negotiations we are very pleased that we are bringing these hugely important matches,” he said.

Two-and-a-half years ago, a similar argument prevented thousands of the green army from watching Ireland’s failed attempts to beat Turkey in the Euro 2000 play-off.

The company holding the rights at that time, were asking exorbitant prices for the second leg, that RTÉ refused to pay.

Bars capitalised on the failed negotiations that time, many tuning their satellite receiver to a Turkish channel that was screening the game. In pubs around Ireland, Irish football fans had to watch a grainy picture of the second leg of the play-off, with the dulcet tones of Gabriel Egan coming from the speakers.

However, such a situation won’t arise this weekend.