eircom Sponsorship up for Renewal

[Dodge]

why do RTE always jump on board with negative news highlighting the eircom sponsorship and adding to it with sligo,galway and waterford financial trouble ---the gave f*** all coverage to Drogs great win

Because most journalists not only don't care about the league, actively want it to fail. You'll notice the majority of these articles aren't written by the excellent young LOI journos such as Dan McDonnell or Mike Scully.

One journo told me before of his editors insturctions on a particular angle. When he refused to write that article he was relegated from the features writer. Large national newspaper too...

[A face]

TV3 lead with it too, but you didn't castigate them.

I do castigate them. Dont get me wrong .... i am lumping them all into one. Any media group, paper, whatever

How can any journalist worth his/her salt look at this story and come up with that stuff?

I am struggling to see where they could have come up with it, if they were reporting that both were going to arbitration then i'd say fair play, do your worst-est, and i'm sure they would do a fine job too ..... BUT if they cannot report that then how can they come up with it.

I'm saying if it the talks are concluded and both parties walk away at the end of the term and the FAI need another sponsor, even if that is the case, how still is that a bad story?

It was never a secret that the contract would end at some stage, it wasn't open ended. So i'm struggling to see how this is bad? Or is it just a guaranteed 'bad news' story that was always there to cash in on when the time comes? If that is the case then when is the next GAA sponsorship deal up for renewal? Will it be treated equally?

If they are putting themselves up on the soap box claiming that this is a bad news item then they should pad it out with a bit more fact if they dont want people to draw conclusions about their reporting.

[sullanefc]

Angry email, just sent to MNS.

[Rovers Maniac]

National broadcaster v Dodge hmmm i wonder who knows more?

[soccerc]

I do castigate them. Dont get me wrong .... i am lumping them all into one. Any media group, paper, whatever

How can any journalist worth his/her salt look at this story and come up with that stuff?

I am struggling to see where they could have come up with it, if they were reporting that both were going to arbitration then i'd say fair play, do your worst-est, and i'm sure they would do a fine job too ..... BUT if they cannot report that then how can they come up with it.

I'm saying if it the talks are concluded and both parties walk away at the end of the term and the FAI need another sponsor, even if that is the case, how still is that a bad story?

It was never a secret that the contract would end at some stage, it wasn't open ended. So i'm struggling to see how this is bad? Or is it just a guaranteed 'bad news' story that was always there to cash in on when the time comes? If that is the case then when is the next GAA sponsorship deal up for renewal? Will it be treated equally?

If they are putting themselves up on the soap box claiming that this is a bad news item then they should pad it out with a bit more fact if they dont want people to draw conclusions about their reporting.

Because the sponsorship link between the league and international team are set to be broken. The International angle was the leverage to secure decent sponsorship for the league that hardly registers in peoples minds.

That's why it is bad news

[Candystripe]

Is this not normal practise?

Their (eircom) contract is up at the end of the season and my guess is the F.A.I. are negotiating with them and more than likely others so maybe eircom are being asked to up their financial package from the current one.

Eircom maybe trying to play hardball and let it slip to the press that they are not renewing the LOI part and then go and deny it later in the day.

Nothing for anyone to get worried about.

As I said.......... normal practise.

[A face]

Because most journalists not only don't care about the league, actively want it to fail. You'll notice the majority of these articles aren't written by the excellent young LOI journos such as Dan McDonnell or Mike Scully.

One journo told me before of his editors insturctions on a particular angle. When he refused to write that article he was relegated from the features writer. Large national newspaper too...

Can we all stop beating around the bush here. We all know well that the media in this country have the knives out for the league all the time, i mean its not like its a secret that just got out or anything.

Any media group will look back at the history in reporting on the league and see the sway to the negative side of things, contrived in alot of cases.

How many times have we seen it happen before on a slow news day, some rookie trying to find his teeth has just jumped through the editors hoop and castigated the league, as if it were some sort of initiation to the world of Irish sports journalism. Its as if they are stuck for a filler and they wheeled out this old chestnut.

There is no doubt in my mind there is an agenda against the league in the media circles in Ireland, its clear as day, i read, listen and see it all the time, is it that they didn't think we'd notice a trend or something?

I sincerely doubt that attitude pervails in editorial terms at the national broadcaster.

What kind of attitude does prevail though? If they can run with a nothing story about a sponsorship contract coming to an end and make it look bad for the league then what are they capable of?

Are people asking themselves this?

This story is a nothing and they have tarred the name of the league with it ..... again !! And then i'm the bad guy for pointing this out

[sullanefc]

Can we all stop beating around the bush here. We all know well that the media in this country have the knives out for the league all the time, i mean its not like its a secret that just got out or anything.

Any media group will look back at the history in reporting on the league and see the sway to the negative side of things, contrived in alot of cases.

How many times have we seen it happen before on a slow news day, some rookie trying to find his teeth has just jumped through the editors hoop and castigated the league, as if it were some sort of initiation to the world of Irish sports journalism. Its as if they are stuck for a filler and they wheeled out this old chestnut.

There is no doubt in my mind there is an agenda against the league in the media circles in Ireland, its clear as day, i read, listen and see it all the time, is it that they didn't think we'd notice a trend or something?



What kind of attitude does prevail though? If they can run with a nothing story about a sponsorship contract coming to an end and make it look bad for the league then what are they capable of?

Are people asking themselves this?

This story is a nothing and they have tarred the name of the league with it ..... again !! And then i'm the bad guy for pointing this out

Agree with all of that, and have I have let MNS know about it. Tony O'Donoghue gone way down in my estimation after that "news" report.

[A face]

Because the sponsorship link between the league and international team are set to be broken.

Aren't they broken already? Aren't they two separate entities now no?

The International angle was the leverage to secure decent sponsorship for the league that hardly registers in peoples minds.

No, we always knew that. That was clear as day all along. It was never so clear as to when RTE asked to pay the FAI not to do MNS. We are all too aware of the fulcrum that exists.

But that is still the case today (i'll admit it wasn't in the past when the FAI didn't give a toss about the league) and no matter what deal is sought now, i'll say that come the end of that, it will still be the case. So what?

The FAI have something to sweeten the pill in the next deal, good .... thats what we all want isn't it. We didn't learn anything new today, no matter how its dressed up. It was a nothing.

[A face]

I actually hold my hands up on this one as regards Breaking News ...

24/07/2008 - 11:50:48

They corrected the story at the time above

Eircom have denied that they are about to end their sponsorship of the eircom League.

Ok, i paired them with RTE on reporting it and i was wrong there. They obviously saw the error of their ways at 11.50 and left it run all day until the 6.01 news corrected it seeing that it was wrong to mislead their readers.

[jebus]

It was a slow news day lads, jesus talk about over reaction from both sides of this. What probably happened was, RTE needed a news story, some RTE source said they heard eircom won't be the sponser next year, RTE reported that eircom would be pulling the plug on the sponsership when in fact the deal is just running out, various people had several heart attacks.

Bar any leaked memo from RTE saying they want to discredit a league that they promote I would assume that all of this has come about through bog standard poor journalism. RTE heard eircom wouldn't be sponsers next year and assumed they were pulling out before checking when the deal was due to expire, which is where the actual news story lies

[A face]

Bar any leaked memo from RTE saying they want to discredit a league that they promote I would assume that all of this has come about through bog standard poor journalism.

Yeah, i guess you're probably right, much a do, yeah the league suffered again in the millionth news story with no substance that just so happens to err on the side that damages the league but sure who cares. Its just their standards again ... dang them boys at RTE and their dodgy standards, shucks will they ever learn

*gives them a playful dig in the arm*

What'cha say we carry on as if nothing ever happened !!

[Queue the music for some eighties American tv show* with a happy ending]




* I'm sure you're familiar with them, we have to endure them on RTE often enough

[Rovers Maniac]

Say what you want lads but i have been supporting Rovers for nearly 30 years and this is the worst i have ever seen the league as a whole collective. We are in absolute bits and over the chink of light is Drogs beating a team from Estonia who are a nation who's league is ranked well below ours.

[pete]

Shoddy work by RTE.

The only quote I could find from eircom was Click

"The current contract is due to expire at the end of 2008," read today's statement. "Eircom is currently in discussions with the FAI regarding sponsorship of Irish soccer.

Not sure how RTE can report this as fact.

Maybe RTE can sponsor the league. If it is good enough for Hurling.

Edit: The League Sponsorship is worth 1.2m a year from eircom

[sullanefc]

Say what you want lads but i have been supporting Rovers for nearly 30 years and this is the worst i have ever seen the league as a whole collective. We are in absolute bits and over the chink of light is Drogs beating a team from Estonia who are a nation who's league is ranked well below ours.

Worst you have seen the league?? Cork, Drogs, Pats all getting coefficient points lately, the highest we have been, in the table. Better facilities than ever before. Turners Cross is a good stadium, Drogheda and Bohs planning new stadia and your own crowd moving to Tallaght next year. Worst you have seen the league.

Would you rather go back to fat part timers playing in the depths of winter in the ****ing rain and getting hammered in Europe by minnows from the likes of malta??

[A face]

Say what you want lads but i have been supporting Rovers for nearly 30 years and this is the worst i have ever seen the league as a whole collective. We are in absolute bits and over the chink of light is Drogs beating a team from Estonia who are a nation who's league is ranked well below ours.

I guess your reflexes are working ok anyway

There is loads going on in the league at the moment that is good but aside from that, my club Cork City only ten years ago was a completely different club, and i mean completely different. And i'd say that most clubs couldn't turn around as say that things haven't got better.

Circa ten years ago, Sligo Rovers got whipped by us 5/6 to 1 and ye sacked your manager the same night. Things were bad in Sligo at that time, very bleak.

Ten years on and you have made some unreal strides given your resources. I know it hasn't been well documented but thats not Sligos fault, its the medias.

I'm telling you, there is loads to be positive about. Look at the damage this article can do and dismiss it until you can see something with more substance.

When we do get a new sponsor for the league, will it be given that same attention, the same negativity? We'll have to wait and see.

[jebus]

Say what you want lads but i have been supporting Rovers for nearly 30 years and this is the worst i have ever seen the league as a whole collective. We are in absolute bits and over the chink of light is Drogs beating a team from Estonia who are a nation who's league is ranked well below ours.

Is it? Really? Is it worse than even 5 years ago? I don't think so, I've only been a LoI follower for 7 years and I can see the difference in quality and vision quite clearly, so stop over-reacting

Yeah, i guess you're probably right, much a do, yeah the league suffered again in the millionth news story with no substance that just so happens to err on the side that damages the league but sure who cares. Its just their standards again ... dang them boys at RTE and their dodgy standards, shucks will they ever learn

It's not just RTE though, across the board in journalism the standards have been slipping for at least 20 years. RTE saying eircom have pulled out of the League of Ireland isn't even in the same ballpark as 13 British newspapers accusing Robert Morat of being a paedophile for example. I mean have you ever actually watched Fox News? No use complaining about RTE's journalistic standards when they're probably one of the better outlets, by comparison of course

Anyway in who's eyes does this damage us? The LoI fan knows it's rubbish, the barstooler thinks we're rubbish regardless, the non football fan probably didn't pay attention and the person thinking about going, well if they're put off by a 3 minute story on RTE then they wouldn't have stuck around for more than a handful of games anyway

[Rovers Maniac]

Worst you have seen the league?? Cork, Drogs, Pats all getting coefficient points lately, the highest we have been, in the table. Better facilities than ever before. Turners Cross is a good stadium, Drogheda and Bohs planning new stadia and your own crowd moving to Tallaght next year. Worst you have seen the league.

Would you rather go back to fat part timers playing in the depths of winter in the ****ing rain and getting hammered in Europe by minnows from the likes of malta??

Wow coefficients! Against a team from Latvia, Estonia and Finland amazing stuff. Drogs and Bohs stadiums are a long long way from getting built. While the rest of the league is in bits bar UCD including the first divsion. Teams are skint close to folding in a lot of cases this is not a proper league it is a total joke. I predict we are about to lose some clubs very soon.

[sullanefc]

Teams are skint close to folding in a lot of cases this is not a proper league it is a total joke.

This is through bad management at clubs. To blame the league or the Fai or summer football is deflecting blame from the clubs themselves.

[Rovers Maniac]

Is it? Really? Is it worse than even 5 years ago? I don't think so, I've only been a LoI follower for 7 years and I can see the difference in quality and vision quite clearly, so stop over-reacting



It's not just RTE though, across the board in journalism the standards have been slipping for at least 20 years. RTE saying eircom have pulled out of the League of Ireland isn't even in the same ballpark as 13 British newspapers accusing Robert Morat of being a paedophile for example. I mean have you ever actually watched Fox News? No use complaining about RTE's journalistic standards when they're probably one of the better outlets, by comparison of course

Anyway in who's eyes does this damage us? The LoI fan knows it's rubbish, the barstooler thinks we're rubbish regardless, the non football fan probably didn't pay attention and the person thinking about going, well if they're put off by a 3 minute story on RTE then they wouldn't have stuck around for more than a handful of games anyway

7 years of watching Lims and it still is rubbish. Look Jebus i shoud have said off the field it is a shambles off the field. I think it can't be argued that there has been a better standard of football being played today in the premier. However i will say that if that Shelbourne team that were around 5 years ago were still around they would win the league anyway i don't think it is an over reaction.