Staff unease leads to RTÉ and Newstalk stripping back coverage of Ireland v Israel games

It is expected RTÉ will have a skeleton crew on the ground at the matches against Israel in Hungary and Serbia

At this stage, there are no plans for RTÉ to have their own punditry or commentary for the upcoming Nations League games against Israel. Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

RTÉ are stripping back their coverage of the upcoming Uefa Nations League fixtures against Israel after misgivings were communicated from staff.

It’s also understood that Newstalk’s Off The Ball programme, which agreed live commentary rights with the FAI in March, won’t be doing so for the matches on September 27 and October 4.

The State broadcaster this year ceased their live Eurovision programme while Israel remained involved "as participation remains unconscionable given the appalling loss of lives in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis there.” 

Although Head of Sport Declan McBennett affirmed no such boycott would apply to football due to “legal and contractual obligations”, he did admit to Newstalk in July they were undecided on how their broadcast would be carried.

That is nearer finalisation following a meeting at Montrose on Thursday, as first reported by The42.ie.  At this stage, there are no plans for commentary or punditry, either from studio or at the games.

It is expected they will have a skeleton crew on the ground at the matches in the neutral countries of Hungary and Serbia.

That means there will be no live pre-match build-up, nor half-time and full-time analysis, across TV and radio platforms.

Commentary can be supplied through Uefa’s centralised feed.

When calling on RTÉ in June to refuse to broadcast the fixtures, Siptu said they were committed to supporting union members who refuse to work on them.

Those concerns have been raised internally, just one of the reasons for paring the package back to the minimum.

RTÉ and Newstalk will provide their full broadcast and analysis for the other two games in the window, the visit to Kosovo on Thursday week, September 24, and against Austria at Lansdowne Road on October 1.