RTÉ get live Premiership rights

[pineapple stu]

Just heard this on the news on the radio (presume I heard correctly!!!) RTÉ, in partnership with Setanta, have gotten live rights to Premiership football for three seasons beginning from next season.

If I've heard wrongly, I apologise for upsetting people unnecessarily! If I've heard rightly, then many people in Montrose (and not the UCD fans!:D ) should be lynched. God knows how much this is costing compared to the cost of sending a couple of cameras out to five Irish grounds every weekend.

[Éanna]

Originally posted by pineapple stu
(and not the UCD fans!:D )
you didn't need to explain. The "many" made it obvious you weren't talking about UCD fans :)

[tiktok]

Just saw on sixone that they'll be carrying fifteen live games for three seasons, kick offs at 3.00 on saturday afternoons, they also agreed to continuing their deal for the premiership on saturday nights.

whoop-de-fcuking-do.

great to see RTE spending money on more football coverage:rolleyes: :mad:

[Éanna]

Originally posted by tiktok
great to see RTE spending money on more football coverage:rolleyes: :mad:
isn't it just. Is it not time for another campaign against the licence fee?

[Éanna]

Originally posted by Conor74
But the more good football on telly the better as far as I'm concerned,
There's plenty of British football on British TV! I've no problem with RTÉ showing foreign football, I do however have a problem with every game they show involving either- Celtic Glasgow, Manchester United PLC, Arsenal or Liverpool*. Public service broadcaster me ******


*: showing of Liverpool games may be aimed at helping cure insomnia, in which case it is a public service.

[tiktok]

I know that it won't take people from LOI games as the saturday afternoon matches won't clash with our games, and i agree that the standard is likely to be higher than the SPL, but don't forget that Sky will keep the cream of each weekends fixtures well away from 3pm on saturday (12.30 sat, 2.00, 4.00 sun games won't be on RTE) so it'll be leicester and villa you'll be watching...

but surely the issue here is that RTE are splashing out more money on english football while they wash their hands of the domestic game, there's been three live games this year between our four domestic stations,
three!!!

the last two games that RTE have shown have both been great adverts for the league, it's been mentioned on a previous thread that the viewing figures were good as well, yet RTE trun their back on the relatively cheap option of showing friday night games to spend more showing foreign leagues live

[thecorner]

any chance they mite also show an el game every week:confused:

[A face]

You just cant possibly agree that it is OK for RTE to show British football over national football. Why are we paying a license at all., to fund a British product .... come off the stage.


It is a "National Broadcaster"

[mickrev]

RTE cant show EL games cos TV3 have the rights. Remember City against Pats on first day of season was on TV3. Dire game, poor viewing figures so they wouldn't show another game.

The RTE deal will impact most on Today FMs coverage in any case and there always is a decent match on at 3 on a Saturday.
Also most people support the bigger teams so of course they are going to show them most of the time. A few years ago they used to show alot of Ipswich and Leeds when they were doing well. And they used always show a few Villa games too cos they have a bit of a following over here.I think RTE are very fair in that respect and do show some of the weaker teams.
I hate people who give out about Licence fee and RTE all the time. Imagine a world where every channel was commercial like TV3, ITV or bloody SKY One. A horrible thought but for some reason some people dont want to pay the Licence fee. They also dont want to pay for bins.
Sickening people.

[A face]

Originally posted by mickrev
RTI think RTE are very fair in that respect and do show some of the weaker teams.

Weaker British teams ..... Mick Rev .... What about the Irish teams .... dont shy away from that point. Fair my fcuk



I hate people who give out about Licence fee and RTE all the time. Imagine a world where every channel was commercial like TV3, ITV or bloody SKY One. A horrible thought but for some reason some people dont want to pay the Licence fee.

Thats the point ..... they are not a commercial station .... hense the License fee .... so why act like one. Why do people give out over the fee = It is our money, given to RTE of a product we do not get. There are trade acts in place that prevent people doing that but RTE wangle out of this. Now my friend ...... THAT IS WHATS NOT FAIR.


They also dont want to pay for bins.
Sickening people.


Fair enough about paying up ..... BUT THEY HAVE A RIGHT TO PROTEST


A 100,000 Farmers bring the country to a halt and it is OK but when people complain about a double taxation, they get thrown in jail and people like you snipe at them for trying ot do something about it.

My friend .... step back ..... bigger picture !!

[SÓC]

RTÉ ceased to be a public broadcaster many years ago, this wont really impact on the eL anyway, matches on at different times and they were never ever going to spend this money on the eL.

Also the Permiership is one of the few RTÉ shows that makes them a profit when it comes to adds and sponsorship. If you think about it, (figures made up) RTÉ pay say €3 Mill to get the rights, make €4 Mill over the years on it, that leaves RTÉ with surplus that they can invest elsewhere.

We should lobby them to spent that money on the eL. Be it by them showing it or by TG4, who would do a better job anyway.

[Dodge]

RTE CAN show el games. The TV3 contract is non-exclusive.

They choose not to.

[pete]

Obviously this doesn't affect the eL directly ..but....the more money they spend on UK football the less left for other football & sport in general. Even if sport makes money for RTE they will still be limited in the amount they can spend on sport.

ManUre won't be shown on 3pm saturdays anyway as they seem to be in permanent 12.00/12.30 saturday games for tv.

Pretty much wall to wall football now 7 days a week. The FAI need to fight hard to block any live tv football games from the UK on fridays!!!

For this RTE hassle me to pay my licence fee :(

[Éanna]

Originally posted by Dodge
RTE CAN show el games. The TV3 contract is non-exclusive.

They choose not to.
thats the brass tacks of it alright. RTÉ have shown they have no interest in the league. I think the best way to deal with them would be to ignore them as much as possible, and down the road when we have a product that they want- tell them where to stick it.

[pineapple stu]

Didn't realise when I first posted this that it was going to be Saturday afternoons only. That's okay from the point that it won't be clashing with eL games, but it's more exposure to the English game for youngesters who we should be trying to get to eL games. The only good thing I can see coming out of this is that this may pursuade a (small) number of people to unsubscribe from Sky, freeing them to consider the eL.

I genuinely can't understand though why they would send two people all the way to England - paying for flights, good wages, food, as well as rights to show the games - for a product which is more than likely going to get less viewers than their eL highlights show got. The basic facts of this are that when RTÉ (briefly) did their highlights show, it got more viewers than their Premiership show almost every time. As did the Cup semi-final. For a highlights show, all you need to do is send one commentator to one game - and RTÉ have studios in Dublin and Cork, so there's most of the Premier Division teams within a short drive - and maybe two cameras to each game. Surely the English option has to be less cost-effective????:confused: :confused: Or even why not do a ten-minute round-up of the goals from last week's eL action during half-time? (Which I know they won't do, and which I know TV3 won't do during their Champions' League show either).

Seriously, though - what am I missing here? Does somebody want to e-mail RTÉ/put up a contact e-mail for them and ask?

[Slash/ED]

I don't have too much of a problem with them showing English premier league stuff, my massive quarrel with them is showing the absolute shíte that is Celtic against some random no mark Scottish minnows every week. Witness the drama, will Larsson score that all important 7th goal to finally put the tie beyond all doubt? An absolute load of rubbish. Poor quality of football, no entertainment and how anyone watches it without falling asleep is beyond me. It's this garbage that should be axed to put more domestic football on the TV.

[liamon]

Originally posted by Conor74
...... Paying for electricity or gas is not "double taxation" and neither is paying for waste disposal.

Oh, and BTW if RTE didn't spend the money on the Premiership games, it would just mean more crap like the Lyrics Board

Agree wiht you about the waste disposal, but not the RTE budget. From listening to numerous interviews over the years, I've been lead to believe that the RTE sports Dept gets a separate budget from other departments. As such, it's down to them to budget for which sporting events they can cover.

This time, they choose the wrong option. I can't see Boro v Wolves getting the same viewing figures as the recent games that RTE have screened. OK, the recent games have been cup games and may have generated more interest than normal eL fixtures, but I think it proves that there is a market out there that is not being accessed at present by commercial tv.

[DruggyDrog]

RTE ARE a commercial station, which is why they are going out of their way to buy products which appeal to the biggest audience possible. No matter what way we like to think of ourselves, we follow a small league with a small following. RTE show SPL matches because the interest is there, Celtic have more supporters in this country than any other club, and they want Premiership rights because the demand and the target audience is there. we have to have a package to entice prospective broadcasters to show us. At present, that is not the case, and that is why no one will touch us unless forced to.

But in saying all that, RTE are a shower of w*****s who are taking our licence fees, then bending us over and shafting us.

[Slash/ED]

But the viewing figures for the semi final replay show there is an audience there. It got more then RTEs premiership or Champions League coverage. It's also partially the FAIs fault for not forcing them to show a certain number of matches a year and a highlight package at a decent hour as part of the deal to show the international matches.

[John83]

That doesn't work. If you tell RTÉ that they have to show half a dozen EL games at certain hours of the day (as opposed to 2 in the morning) to get the international games, they'll just say that it devalues the package as a whole and offer less money. TV3 are every bit as enthusiastic about showing league games.

Let's face it, cup finals draw in bigger crowds than anything else. You average league game, where there are already a couple of thousand fans at the match, will have mediocre ratings at best. And Friday night is a good slot for audiences. The tv stations don't want to show these games because they'll get better ratings with something else. Better ratings means more ad money.

[Enda M]

druggydrog wat you said is ****e. we are irish and rte claim they are irish a=so if they had any sense of irish ness in them theyd show el stuff.i hour a week is all we ask.how many countries around europe ignore their national league like irish stations do.

[Colm]

Originally posted by pineapple stu
Didn't realise when I first posted this that it was going to be Saturday afternoons only. That's okay from the point that it won't be clashing with eL games, but it's more exposure to the English game for youngesters who we should be trying to get to eL games.

That's the key for me aswell. This will only serve to create another generation of kids supporting Manchester, Liverpool, Chelsea etc. These kids should be encouraged to go to el games and be real football fans, they would love the el if they were only given the chance to experience it instead of being brainwashed into watching a foreign product on tv.

As Dodge pointed out, RTE can show el games. The question we must all ask is why won't they?

[A face]

The figures are there for eL games .... It has been proved time and time again so there is no debate there. eL porgramming wipe the floor in some cases as opposed to English product.


We pay a licence fee ..... We ARE entitled to have our say in the programming that RTÉ show, eL being the majoity. Hense the charter etc.


RTÉ ignore both these points. To what end i dont know.


Some one said they wont have advertising power etc. ......... surely it doesn't make a difference what the punters are actually watching just as long as there are more people watching the ads. ..... so that point goes out the window.


Any time RTÉ try and defend there position, their argument gets toren to bits. They just choose not to listen.

[tiktok]

Remember we have summer soccer now, and both RTE and TV3 look during the summer to replace their big ratings earners with other programming during the summer break. The point that friday is a big telly night doesn't hole the same water over the summer.

If there's one thing we can learn from the SKY experience it's that regardless of the product, if it's properly packaged and presented then the audience will have a look.

[Éanna]

Originally posted by Conor74
With respect a face, farmers get shafted again and again and again by successive governments and most particularly by European legislation. For most they are forced to take a job outside their farms to make ends meet. You know the old adage "get a job"?
That old adage is perfect. Let them get jobs. If I didn't make enough money from my job, I'd quit and look for another one. Farmers are born whingers. It's genetic. All they do is moan and leech off the taxpayer. If I could get an EU grant to not mow my lawn I wouldn't be moaning about it. And if, just by some bizarre fluke, you're right and its only a small number of farmers who are making the money- who's fault is it? Fianna Fáil? Backing yourself into a corner there Conor my man :)

[Macy]

It's totally ridiculous that RTE pay this amount of money for these games - it's bad enough that they pay for the highlights.... If they're a commercial station they shouldn't get the license fee - put the license fee into a pool for them, TV3 and TG4 for public service programmes that they have to bid for the funds....

btw It looks like the knight in shining armour may be the IFA - they're talking of appealing the decision to Europe as 3pm Saturday clashes with the Irish League. Delighted for the Montrose Muppets....

[Éanna]

Originally posted by Macy
It's totally ridiculous that RTE pay this amount of money for these games - it's bad enough that they pay for the highlights.... If they're a commercial station they shouldn't get the license fee - put the license fee into a pool for them, TV3 and TG4 for public service programmes that they have to bid for the funds....

btw It looks like the knight in shining armour may be the IFA - they're talking of appealing the decision to Europe as 3pm Saturday clashes with the Irish League. Delighted for the Montrose Muppets....
absolutely spot on there macy. RTÉ are really stretching the definition of poublic service to the max.....

[Beavis]

Originally posted by Enda M
we are irish and rte claim they are irish a=so if they had any sense of irish ness in them theyd show el stuff

RTE haven't turned there back on national sport.They give great support to our national games(football and hurling),and rightfully so.But I don't for one second think that it's because they feel it's right to support it,it's because they know it gets the best ratings.Handball is a national sport but you don't see that on cos nobody wants it.That's the way stations have to operate,it's what the majority of viewers want to see.

The argument that El games bring in more revenue than British games is obviously false.There's no logic in saying that RTE choose to make less money in favour of showing British matches.Get real

Basically people prefer to watch top level football than a poorer game.I for one watch the Premiership and English First Divison because I like to see Ireland's best players in action and sadly they happen to play in another country.

PS I EXPECT TO GET CRUCIFIED FOR THIS POST:D

[Éanna]

Originally posted by Beavis
RTE haven't turned there back on national sport.They give great support to our national games(football and hurling),and rightfully so.But I don't for one second think that it's because they feel it's right to support it,it's because they know it gets the best ratings.Handball is a national sport but you don't see that on cos nobody wants it.That's the way stations have to operate,it's what the majority of viewers want to see.

The argument that El games bring in more revenue than British games is obviously false.There's no logic in saying that RTE choose to make less money in favour of showing British matches.Get real

Basically people prefer to watch top level football than a poorer game.I for one watch the Premiership and English First Divison because I like to see Ireland's best players in action and sadly they happen to play in another country.

PS I EXPECT TO GET CRUCIFIED FOR THIS POST:D
No intention of crucifying you, but that attitude is exactly the reason Irish soccer is stuck in a rut. The fact is that RTÉ have got better viewing figures for eircom League/FAI Cup games than for the champions league or for the Premiership. Whether they make more money or not, I don't know. The point really is: if RTÉ are a public service broadcaster, they should be showing what the public wants (hence, viewing figures, hence doemstic soccer) but if they are a commercial station, they are under no obligation and can just show whatever gets the best advertising revenue- however, if the latter is the case they are not entitled to ANY licence fee. The problem I, and I imagine many others feel the same, is that RTÉ seem to want to have their cake and eat it.

[Beavis]

Originally posted by Éanna
The point really is: if RTÉ are a public service broadcaster, they should be showing what the public wants (hence, viewing figures, hence doemstic soccer) but if they are a commercial station, they are under no obligation and can just show whatever gets the best advertising revenue- however, if the latter is the case they are not entitled to ANY licence fee.

Fair point there.I suppose it does then all come down to actual viewing figures.However if El matches were getting larger audiences,as yous say, wouldn't advertising follow??Corporations just want as many people to see their logo as possible.That's why I find it hard to believe El matches attract better audiences,if it was the case these games would get as much if not more sponsorship than the supposidly less watched British games.:confused:

[Slash/ED]

Originally posted by Beavis
Fair point there.I suppose it does then all come down to actual viewing figures.However if El matches were getting larger audiences,as yous say, wouldn't advertising follow??Corporations just want as many people to see their logo as possible.That's why I find it hard to believe El matches attract better audiences,if it was the case these games would get as much if not more sponsorship than the supposidly less watched British games.:confused:

Well soccercental said the FAI cup semi final replay got 200,000 viewers which beat the viewers for RTEs premiership coverage and champions league coverage and I think they got their figures from RTE themselves.

[Beavis]

Alright then,if LoI matches are getting ratings as good as foreign matches then it would of course be much more economical for the RTE to show home matches.Sadly though I don't think we would see this week in week out.The cup semi-final,having had an exciting first game[the second half anyway] and involving two top teams is always likely to draw a good amount of viewers but could it be reproduced on a regular basis?

The fact is that the Premiership gets around 200,000 viewers every week .Don't think I'm trying to knock the LoI,I would like to see a El game on RTE or TV3 each week but I'm afraid that saying these games bring better audiences is not normally true and as I said before RTE have to go with what the majority want.

It does seem a good idea though to show El games during the summer when the British leagues are in close season.They could show the Sunday afternoon game and maybe after some good exposer,interest might grow in the public.

[pineapple stu]

Originally posted by Beavis
The fact is that the Premiership gets around 200,000 viewers every week .Don't think I'm trying to knock the LoI,I would like to see a El game on RTE or TV3 each week but I'm afraid that saying these games bring better audiences is not normally true and as I said before RTE have to go with what the majority want.


The last figures I heard (admittedly nearly two years ago) were that The Premiership got 150,000 viewers. At the same time, RTÉ were doing (being forced to do) an eL highlights show. This beat The Premiership on ratings almost every week (getting around 170,000 I think).

I don't know if it's assumed that the 150,000 Premiership viewers includes more pub viewers (in which case advertising may earn more as there's far more than one person watching the programme), although even then I know the Pat's-Bohs match was on in a few pubs.

[gspain]

When it comes to revenue it is not simply a case of viewing figures. Two points against this are

1) Cost of an OB unit to cover a live game is expensive. Relatively speaking the premiership and live English footbal lwill be cheaper.

2) Types of viewers can be different and more attractive to advertisers. I don't know any of the facts here but it would be interesting to compare the cost of an advert furing the premiership with the cost during the Cup Semi final. The big ones for RTE are normally the Rose of tralee (I'm serious) and the national team competitive games where adverts can cost over €20,000 for 30 seconds.

Now the reason I feel RTE should be forced to cover live football is public service broadcasting - that's why we pay a licence fee.

They should be forced to show more domestic football. Before the Sky deal the F.A.I. tied in the rights to the national team with domestic coverage hence live games. Now after taking the 7.5 million and losing it we ar ein a far wors eposition as RTE have the national team for a song and don't have to show any domestic football.

I've no issue with them showing live premiershiip football or hours and hours of live GAA or live badminton once they also cover domestic football.

[pineapple stu]

Originally posted by gspain
1) Cost of an OB unit to cover a live game is expensive. Relatively speaking the premiership and live English footbal lwill be cheaper.

I think that must be what it comes down to. I remember reading a book which explained how US programmes were taking over the world - they make their profit in America, and then if they can dump then on any other country, any bit of revenue is 100% profit. So basically, the Premier League makes its money from Sky, ITV and BBC, and can then afford to cut the price if anyone else is looking for rights. They then gain from increased exposure by fawning more couch potatos who buy jerseys at E80 a pop. This is also why there are so many US programmes on RTÉ (particularly those appalling family films...)

The only way around this seems to be to take a strong line on it, like the BBC consciously restricting the number of US programmes they show so as not to drown out their own culture. So it seems the only hope for the eL on RTÉ is if the muppets in the Montrose adopt a principled line of culture and Irishness over money. And I think it's fair to say we'll be waiting a while...:( :(

[Éanna]

Originally posted by Conor74
No no, as noted above successive governments, and the EU witht they sea of legislation that seems designed to upset small businesses, but particularly small farms...
successive governments? How many of the last 3 or even 5 governments has FF been in?! Did FF object to us joining the EU because it wanted to protect small farmers? My arse

[Éanna]

Originally posted by gspain
1) Cost of an OB unit to cover a live game is expensive. Relatively speaking the premiership and live English footbal lwill be cheaper.
Does anyone think that the best thing the FAI could do would be to buy one of these units and then make it available to RTÉ/TV3 on a weekly basis as part of a contract to show matches. Surely it would be do-able?

[crc]

chorus manage to get camera's to city's and cobh's home games - it can't be that difficult

[gspain]

Originally posted by crc
chorus manage to get camera's to city's and cobh's home games - it can't be that difficult

Live games are far more exensive to do than recording and showing again. And as the Americans say if you're not live you're dead.....

Quality of coverage varies here- RTE have high standards (Aertel is an exception :) ) and probably union rules too on the numbers involved etc.

The cost includes manpower etc not just the cost of the units. I believe TV3 don't even have an OB unit - RTE do have a couple but these are expensive to operate.

[pineapple stu]

Originally posted by gspain
Live games are far more exensive to do than recording and showing again. And as the Americans say if you're not live you're dead.....

The yanks also said they'd be out of Iraq in a couple of months! :D

Still think that the eL needs a decent (and accessible) highlights show more than loads of live matches. Which brings us back to the question - why not???:confused: :confused:

[A face]

I have listened to all that is said and still say that on the few occasion, eircom League (not having the luxury of building a viewership or following, barr live games) has still beaten English footie hands down nearly every time.

All this on the five or less times we see it in a year ...... Beavis, you say can it do it consistently. I say it hasn't been given the chance and "the product" has never been top shelf in terms of quality (compared to Sky Sports razz-ah-ma-tazz).

IF eircom League footie was give the proper look in that it deserves, you would see heads raising all over the place and that exposure would directly effect the game, with money and sponsorship for the clubs etc.

To right it ..... saying "it would never take off" is one of the most stupid arguments i have ever heard and there is no fact to it at all.

Again ...... we pay a licence fee ............... WE SHOULD SEE WHAT WE PAY FOR.

[Slash/ED]

I wonder will Sky be interested?

They gave more coverage to the league sides in Europe this year then any of our stations, bar RTE for Bohs last tie, with highlights, interviews and live score updates. I remember they had a special report on the league, three parter I think, on Sky Sports News and even had a half an hour highlights package of the cup final on the odd time on Sky Sports One aswell as News.

Considering that they're pretty much stuck for football during the summer, and considering that they even show Confrence stuff and that's winter season as well as a host of less popular sports, they might be interested in showing the odd Eircom League match during the summer at least?

[Beavis]

Originally posted by A face

To right it ..... saying "it would never take off" is one of the most stupid arguments i have ever heard and there is no fact to it at all.


This was never my argument.Yous said as it stands the Eircom League brings in more viewers which I have disagreed with, as there is little in the line of facts to back it up.

If you read my posts,I have made it clear that decent exposer might give the El a chance to attract footie fans which aren't currently following the LoI.

Maybe in the future it may have more viership but at the moment it's simply not true.I acknowledge the Semi-Final replay had 200,000 but this is would only be the case for 2 or 3 games a year

[Macy]

Originally posted by Beavis
Maybe in the future it may have more viership but at the moment it's simply not true.I acknowledge the Semi-Final replay had 200,000 but this is would only be the case for 2 or 3 games a year
But we only get two or three games a year live and they consistently beat SPL/EPL coverage, that's the point. When RTE was forced to have the sunday evening highlights, that show consistently beat the Premiership for viewers...

The numbers watching would only go up with more coverage, not down...

[pineapple stu]

Originally posted by Beavis
Yous said as it stands the Eircom League brings in more viewers which I have disagreed with, as there is little in the line of facts to back it up.

There are viewing figures to back them up. Just because you haven't seen them doesn't mean they don't exist. This is a couple of years ago now when RTÉ were doing the highlights show, but it was pulling in around 20,000 more viewers than The Premiership.

[Beavis]

The following page shows that both Champions League and the Premiership are huge successes for RTE.This is the reason why RTE continue to show foreign matches,they rake in the viewers!!

www.sbpost.ie/web/DocumentView/did-3681886-pageUrl--2Fthe-newspaper-2FSundays-Paper-2FMedia-and-marketing.asp (http://)

If you aren't arsed reading it or it doesn't work,it basically says 405,000(28% of viewers) watched Champios League in this given week and 300,000 watched the Premiership.

It is quite possible that an Eircom League show beat the Premiership a couple of years back when it was on at the same time as the BBC equivilant.It has been given a rebirth by the English one now having a different time.

Look for the final time,I hope we will see El on our sceens more in the future but I just wanted to state RTE's reasoning behind showing foreign matches over it and there it is it just gets more viewing at the moment and they have to do what the majority want (after all we pay licences!)

I rest my case
;)

[John83]

Originally posted by A face
Again ...... we pay a licence fee ............... WE SHOULD SEE WHAT WE PAY FOR.

You pay for Pat Kenny's €500,000 per year salary, that's what.

[pineapple stu]

Originally posted by Beavis
www.sbpost.ie/web/DocumentView/did-3681886-pageUrl--2Fthe-newspaper-2FSundays-Paper-2FMedia-and-marketing.asp (http://)

Umm...that link doesn't work? Nor does typing it in the address bar?

If that's what the figures there show, then fair enough, but it still doesn't absolve them of their appalling treatment of the eL when their highlights show was beating The Premiership. Maybe they do show English football to get in more viewers, but the bottom line is that their treatment of the eL is nothing shrt of disgraceful.

I'd say figures for The Premiership will drop as well once the much better Match of the Day comes back next season too. Hope so anyway...

[4tothefloor]

Originally posted by Colm
That's the key for me aswell. This will only serve to create another generation of kids supporting Manchester, Liverpool, Chelsea etc. These kids should be encouraged to go to el games and be real football fans, they would love the el if they were only given the chance to experience it instead of being brainwashed into watching a foreign product on tv.

As Dodge pointed out, RTE can show el games. The question we must all ask is why won't they?

Don't agree. More soccer on tv is good for soccer. As i recall, when rte used to show these live games every saturday on sports stadium years ago, the crowds going to national league games were quiet healthy and interest in soccer was quiet high. Whats important in the bigger scheme of things is that youngfellas will be out playing soccer copying their idols, rather than looking up to other sports or playing playstation.

What Fran Rooney must do now is market the league properly by sharing the rights between Rte, TG4 and TV3. If they all did 5 games a season, it would equal the 15 premiership ones. But Rte are committed to the GAA, so........

[A face]

Originally posted by pineapple stu
their treatment of the eL is nothing shrt of disgraceful.

Hear hear .... that is the bottom line .... i dont care how many people watch British football because it is rammed down their throats at every available opportunity. I dont care that the media are spoon feeding the masses with SPL and Premeirship football.

What i want is our National League .... The League of Ireland ...... Top flight football in this country (Ireland) for Irish players.

Sorry .... they is no way to justify the treatment that this league gets.