Setanta signs up for another four years with Sports Cup

The draw for this year's Setanta Sports Cup will take place on Tuesday, July 28 with the first series of fixtures scheduled for the week-end of August 29 /30.

A previous meeting had been adjourned pending further contact between the participants and the broadcaster Setanta Sports. Setanta will continue its association with the tournament for another four years, according to today's announcement.

Dublin-based pay television group Setanta has recently been faced with being placed into administration, threatening 430 jobs, almost half of them in Ireland. The company began to get into difficulties in February when it lost one of its two packages of live rights to Premiership games to Sky from August 2010.

Setanta retained the right to show 23 games on Saturday evenings but lost its coverage of Monday night games.

Following today’s meeting, Setanta’s CEO Niall Cogley said: "We are very gratified with the support that we have received from the clubs and from the Associations following what has been a difficult period and we are delighted to be continuing with this tournament."