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
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Plus €100 sign up and €40 a month is expensive and no doubt they're coverage will be as patronising and crap as ITV's and BBC's coverage during the World Cup.
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