Action Against FAI Sky Deal
AN URGENT APPEAL TO IRISH FOOTBALL FANS
Please note that this is not about the domestic coverage deal with TV3 (apart from Sky having the FAI Cup semis and final). If you don't agree with this, I respect your opinion. I'm not trying to convince you. I'm addressing this to those who are angry at the deal.
Also, if you agree with this, please do something. And fast. In particular, support the postcard campaign announced by the Irish Football Supporters Association (details at the end of this message) and the boycott of FAI goods announced by the Irish Consumers Association.
In my opinion, this time the FAI has gone too far. At the very same meeting that it established an independent investigation into its own incompetence in Japan and Korea, it has insulted Irish soccer fans everywhere, shown itself clueless as to the true meaning of football, and ignored both its own development strategy and the basis on which it is being massively funded by the Irish government.
THE REALITY OF THE SKY DEAL
All for a hyped-up deal that, on the FAI’s own projected accounts, will have no major impact on the finances of Irish football. In the next three years, the Irish Government will give the FAI ten times as much as Sky will: 57m euro compared to 5.6m euro. In this time, the Sky deal will add less than 5% to the FAI’s projected income. Assuming RTE or TV3 would have paid even half the amount Sky will, total three-year income will only rise from about 71m euro to about 74m.
It’s not even a good deal financially. Sky is paying the English Nationwide League more twice as much per live game. For non-premiership English football and the Worthington Cup, Sky is paying 500,000 euro per live game. The FAI will get less than 210,000 per game (assuming 3 full and 3 U-21 home internationals, and the FAI Cup semis and final each year) for exclusive rights to world’s 14th best national team.
For that, Irish fans must subscribe to Sky or bring their children to a pub when Ireland play at home. And what clown came up with the sweetener of showing non-Sky-subscribers our matches “as-live” an hour after they end? Can they really know that little about football?
DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
Six months ago the FAI launched a major Government-funded development strategy “One Game, One Association”. Its stated principal aim was to maximise the number of people involved in Irish football. It made clear that “participation should be understood to have a broad definition, which includes supporters”.
To do this, the FAI committed in writing to “make key policy decisions through (its formal structures) and through consultation with participants”; to provide “services to participants which are accessible in terms of their location, price and time of availibility”; and to “ensure that Irish football is enjoyable, ethical and inclusive.” D’oh!
In a strategy negotiated with and largely funded by the Government, the FAI was “fully committed to working in partnership with the wider community” and “gaining the support and cooperation of local communities”. Clearly it is doing no such thing. It is making major unilateral decisions about the very essence of our game, acting as if it was an independently wealthy gentleman’s club.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
Enough is enough. We the fans own Irish football. The FAI is ultimately our organisation, funded by us both as supporters and taxpayers. If it remains in denial about its duty to us, then our Government should stop giving it our money.
Don’t just sit there. Do something. Support the Irish Football Supporters Association postcard campaign by sending a postcard with the words NO SALE to Alan Hunter at 47 Capel Street in Dublin. Support the Consumer Association’s boycott of FAI goods.
And think of other actions. If enough people want to do something, we should all do it together. Feel free to email me if you want to. Or else organise something yourself. Please also circulate this to anyone that can influence anyone involved in the FAI. Contact your local Eircom League club, your TDs, the Government, anyone who sponsors the FAI or anything related to it.
We can win this if we’re intelligent and committed. Always remember that we’re dealing with people who, at the very same meeting that they decided on this deal, also set up an independent investigation into their own incompetency.
Michael Nugent
Irish Football Supporters Association
Hi Mattigol,
He's the secretary of the Irish Football Supporters Association.
I don't actually know him, but he's the guy who has been on the news yesterday and today responding to the deal on behalf of Irish fans. Their plan is to bring the postcards to the FAI when they've got enough of them.
I'm going to try to contact him over the weekend and see if they're organising a demo or picket. If not, I'll probably organise something myself along with anyone who is interested.
And sure, feel free to circulate the original post to wherever you feel it would help. I've already sent it to the eircomleague.net messageboard and the soc.culture.irish newsgroup.
Cheers,
Michael Nugent
Its about the fans who don't have or don't want Sky, not about RTE
Hi Vetinari,
No, I'm not representing anybody. I'll respond to your other question a little later.
Colm,
It’s not RTE that I am concerned about. It’s the thousands of Irish fans who depend on RTE that are being betrayed. Lansdowne only holds a fraction of the Irish people who want to see an Ireland home game. If you don’t have a ticket, you now have three choices: subscribe to a multinational corporation whose web site calls our country Eire, or go to a pub bringing your children if you have them, or wait for an hour until after the match ends to see it. We deserve better than that.
I din’t know what the final RTE offer would have been, but lets take the figures you’re using, which has been quoted as RTE's annual first offer, not the total. So RTE were offering 1m euro a year, and Sky 1.9m. The difference is, give or take, 1m euro a year.
Now put that in the context of the FAI’s projected income for this coming year. A minumum of 19m euro from the Irish Government (up from 7.5m last year). Another 4m from international matches (these are the FAI’s own figures). That’s 23m euro without tv rights. I don’t know how much merchandise sales will add.
So the difference between going for RTE and Sky is this:
Option one: Give it to RTE. Have 24m euro income this year, plus merchandise sales, over twice the income as last year not counting the World Cup finals, plus all of our fans are able to see the games in comfort and more people feel good about Irish football.
Option two: Give it to Sky. Have 25m euro income this year, plus lower merchandise sales, plus thousands of fans who are infuriated more than anything I’ve experienced before, plus the Consumers Association calling for a public boycott of FAI goods and calling for the IRFU to stop leasing them Lansdowne. That’s a very expensive cost for adding about 4% to your income.
So even in financial terms, it doesn't make sense. And in reality, it’s only peripherally to do with RTE. Like the FAI, they’re largely funded by our money as taxpayers. So we’re paying both of them to screw around with our game. Unless we stand up to them.
Michael Nugent
Why The Sky Deal Is Different
Hi Vetinari,
You asked why this Sky deal is different to other Sky deals.
Well, there are a number of reasons, but this is the main one.
A 1997 European Directive known as “Television without Frontiers” allows EU citizens to view sporting events of national importance without having to pay for it. To enforce this, each Government draws up a list of designated events.
For example, Germany has listed all home and away matches of the German national team; the semi-finals and final of the German FA Cup; any European club final involving a German club; and the opening match, semi-finals and finals of every European Championship and World Cup.
In 1999 this became Irish law with the Broadcasting (Major Events Television Coverage) Act. However, no events have yet been designated here. But they should have been. It was specifically designed for events like this.
Michael Nugent
New: Campaign Against Sky Deal
This is addressed to Irish football fans who are opposed to the Sky deal. If you support the Sky deal, then I respect your opinion, and this message is not an attempt to change your mind.
If you oppose the Sky deal, be aware that the Government can still list these games for protection, and let the FAI and Sky challenge that decision if they want. I will post details later. Some other points:
(1) I am drafting an initial letter to politicians, the European Commission, the FAI and their affiliated bodies and sponsors, and Sky. Please let me know if there are any specific points you would like included. In particular, what are your feelings about the type of compromises that are being floated (village square type, screenings, one free game to start off with !!! etc.) I will circulate a final draft of the letter as soon as I can, and sign it as from anybody who wants their name included.
(2) I and others are planning a meeting soon (probably in Dublin) to discuss what to do next. If you would like to attend, please email me at michael@happying.com. We will be discussing relatively immediate public action. Some suggestions are leaflets and a petition in town centres and at Eircom League games, plus pickets of the FAI and Eircom. Would you be happy to take part in any of these activities, or have you any other suggestions?
As I said, this is addressed to Irish football fans who are opposed to the Sky deal. If you support the Sky deal, then I respect your opinion, and this message is not an attempt to change your mind.
Michael Nugent
My Connection With Irish Football
Hi Pete,
Sorry, I suppose I should have introduced myself. I wrote an article for the Herald on Monday looking for support for a campaign against this deal. I started with what is effectively the answer to your question, so here are the first few paragraphs from the article...
Sky boss Rupert Murdoch once made the notorious boast: "We will use sport as the battering ram for pay television".
I'm a longtime fan feeling the blunt end of that battering ram. I’ve followed Bohs, Leeds and Ireland since the 1970s. I spent most weekends of my youth at Dalymount when it seemed a citadel, Milltown before it became a carpark, Tolka when its seating was a muck embankment, and being chased out of Oriel Park by people who were probably less ferocious than they seemed at the time.
In those more rough 'n' ready times I watched all of Ireland’s home ties, including friendly and reserve games, from the Dalymount Shed. Then we started winning (okay, mostly drawing) under the Charlton regime and, like thousands of other lifelong fans without FAI or corporate connections, I usually couldn’t get a ticket for Lansdowne.
An hour before the kick-off of one international, a businessman offered me one of “four tickets back in the office that we’re not using”. I went and sat beside three empty seats, getting angrier by the minute. After that I started watching our games at home on the telly.
Now the FAI tell me I cannot even do that, unless I do my bit to shove Rupert's battering ram. Appropriately, the FAI decided this at the very same meeting as they set up an investigation into how they managed to dispense with the services of their only world-class player in the run-up to Korea and Japan.
Well, this time they’ve gone too far. The FAI is not a private business, free to take whatever decision makes most money. It is the repositary of all of our football memories and dreams, as fans and Irish citizens of all ages.
It is about Jackie Carey captaining both Ireland and Northern Ireland with distinction, it's about a teenage Johnny Giles scoring a stunner against Sweden, it's about Don Givens’ hat-trick against Russia in 1974, about Packie Bonnar’s penalty save in Italy, and Damian Duff’s cheeky bow to the crowd in Japan. It is our game, not the FAI’s.
So forget the rows between the FAI and RTE over who offered what and when. Our money keeps both of them in existence. They should both be working together to best serve all of our interests. Not forcing children and OAPs to subscribe to Sky or endure the scrum in the pub...
Michael Nugent
Sky Deal Can Be Overturned, Says EU
On Morning Ireland a representative of the EU Commission has confirmed that, from the Commission's perspective, the Irish home matches and the FAI Cup semis and final must be shown to fans on free tv, despite the FAI contract with Sky, once the Irish Government lists them for protection.
Here's a summary of an article I wrote for yesterday's Herald explaining the law concerned.
TELEVISION WITHOUT FRONTIERS
The FAI Sky row has highlighted a law that our Government has shamefully failed to enforce, in the face of pressure from vested interests in the FAI, IRFU and GAA. Communications Minister Dermot Ahern has now vowed to start listing sports events that we can see, as of right, on free television.
But it is not too late to save the Irish home soccer matches. As Robbie Keane showed against Germany, we should keep fighting until the final whistle.
To do this, we must become as familiar with this match-saving EU law as we should already be with the offside rule. Government Ministers are already straying yards offside with misleading statements about what they can and can’t do. Here are the facts that we should be flagging to them.
Sport is part of our shared culture, and European law recognises this. A 1997 Directive known as “Television without Frontiers” allows EU citizens to view sporting events of national importance without having to pay. To enforce this, each Government draws up a list of protected events.
Germany, Italy and the UK protect the Olympic Games. The UK protects Wimbledon, the Grand National, and the Rugby League and World Cup finals. Italy protects the Tour of Italy cycling competition, the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix and (somewhat unusually) the San Remo Italian music festival.
Football is by far the most protected sport. Germany and Italy have listed all of their countries’ qualifying games for the European Championships and World Cup, plus the finals of each. Also protected are the English and Scottish FA Cup finals, the German FA Cup semis and final, and European semis or finals with German club sides.
How exactly are the events protected? They must be shown on a station (or group of stations) that can be seen free-to-air to the vast majority of the population. If a broadcaster who cannot do this buys the rights, they can still show the event. But they must also sell the rights to a qualifying broadcaster. If there is a dispute, the High Court can be asked to set a fair market rate.
This Directive entered Irish law with the Broadcasting (Major Events Television Coverage) Act of 1999. Since then, no events have yet been designated here. Why?
Here are the first two men offside. Sports Minister John O’Donoghue has suggested that the listing must be interpreted narrowly. And Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said that, "even if there were legislation governing the area, it would not allow entire tournaments to be designated free-to-air". This is all true, but misleading. You may not be able to list, say, the entire World Cup. But you can list, collectively, all home and away international football matches involving your own country.
And here’s the third man offside. Dermot Ahern has said that listing events was difficult because the sports bodies would not agree. But they don’t have to agree. They just have to be consulted. And that has already been done. If they had to agree, that would defeat the whole purpose of the law. In fact, the law explicitly states that, “the failure of the organiser or a broadcaster to respond to the Minister’s efforts to consult shall not preclude the making of an order.”
They could, of course, like anybody else, take a Constitutional challenge against the law itself. And this threat may well have frightened the Government into not listing any events so far. But public reaction to the FAI deal has now spurred Dermot Ahern into more urgent action. Despite the Sky contract, we must not let him ignore the home football matches. The FAI and Sky may have scored a very dodgy ‘Hand-of-Murdoch’ goal, but there is still time for the Government to equalize.
Our listing law is silent about contracts that are signed after the law came into effect, but before the event concerned was listed. In the UK the cut-off date is when the Government started to consult with the bodies concerned about a possible listing (which happened here well before the FAI Sky deal). After that, the parties to a contract are assumed to know that they are dealing with an event that may end up being listed.
Whatever the eventual outcome, the Government should now list these games for protection, and let the FAI and Sky challenge that decision if they want to. This would also open up the way for individual Irish citizens to make direct complaints to the European Commission. The Irish Government, seemingly unclear on the rules, is facing an open goal. They should put the ball in the net and let the referee decide what to do.
