Fifty eircom League games to be screened live

BOHEMIANS v Drogheda United on Friday night, will raise the curtain on live television coverage of this season’s new look eircom League of Ireland.

RTÉ 2 will screen the game, which kicks off at 7.55pm at Dalymount Park, the first of some 50 domestic fixtures which will be carried live on RTÉ, Setanta Sports and TG4.

TV3 are also set to continue with their weekly eircom League highlights show.

Other televised fixtures so far confirmed are: Cork City v Galway United (March 16, RTÉ 2) Derry City v St Pats (March 23, RTÉ 2), Drogheda United v Derry City (March 30, Setanta) and Derry City v Cork City (Monday, April 9, Setanta).

Fran Gavin, Director of the eircom League of Ireland, welcomed the increased television coverage for the new season, saying: “By screening games live, we hope to be able to convince those people with a passing interest in the League of the huge reservoir of playing talent that exists in this country.”

Backing that ambition, the FAI — who now have direct control over the League of Ireland — has sunk €500,000 into a marketing campaign to promote the domestic game, with a series of fan-friendly advertisements running in the print media and on the airwaves.

Increased sponsorship and prize money means that the winners of the 2007 Premier Division title will collect €225,000 from a total league prize fund of €583,000. According to the FAI, when the League prize money is added to other prize funds — including the Setanta Cup, FAI Cup and European qualification — the total comes to over one million euro.

Speaking at yesterday’s official launch in Dublin, eircom League of Ireland chairman Paddy McCaul said that the success of the merger with the FAI should not be judged for a couple of years.

However, after last season’s controversies on and off the pitch — and further setbacks during the close season — there is widespread hope at grassroots level that things can and will improve.

“It would be hard to think it could disimprove,” was the wry comment of Shamrock Rovers manager Pat Scully, whose side are back in the top flight after a season in the First Division.

“Last year was just so bad. On a lot of levels it was really disappointing. It’s obviously difficult to take over something that has been criticised so heavily and probably has been run so badly, so it is going to take a little bit of time. As Paddy McCaul says, I think it is a little bit unrealistic for people to think that the FAI are going to take over and within two or three months everything is going to be perfect.

“It hasn’t been a perfect start, but if the people who run it learn from the mistakes of the past, hopefully we can have a really good league.”