Business of Sport/Daire Whelan: In the same week that Setanta Sport announced that it has won the exclusive broadcast rights to the Scottish Premier League, FIFA's Sepp Blatter has said that he would like to see Celtic and Rangers playing in the English Premiership.
However, what Setanta must be thinking in light of Blatter's comments is another matter. Under the terms of the deal Setanta will have the rights for four seasons starting with the 2004-2005 campaign and will broadcast 38 live pay-per-view games per annum in the UK and Ireland. The majority of the games will kick-off at 3pm on Sundays. Irish fans will also have an opportunity to watch an additional 10 games which will be broadcast exclusively in the Irish Republic. These games will start at 3pm on Saturdays.
BBC Scotland had increased their bid to roughly match Setanta's on Wednesday, but it was rejected by the SPL, which instead chose to accept a subscription deal, worth £35m.
It is believed some of the 12 SPL clubs blame live coverage on terrestrial television for declining attendances and was part of the reason for preferring Setanta's bid.
But, the Ireland-based media company will not be thanking Blatter for his comments. Blatter did preface his remarks by highlighting the difficulties of having four football associations in the UK. "It is a headache to have four British associations," he said. "If they were together, there would be a wonderful Premier League and more."
Although stressing that such an action would be a matter between the SFA and Premier League, the Old Firm will relish the opportunity to be part of the much more lucrative Premiership market. And if anything happens in the next four years the Setanta deal will of course be affected.
Meanwhile, suggestions that the pay-per-view model cannot work - as evidenced with the collapse of ITV Digital - have been rejected by Scottish League executive chairman Lex Gold.
"The numbers (needed to succeed) are something like half the subscribers we were looking at for the proposed SPL television deal a few years ago. The numbers needed for that were 200,000 and this is less, so the business case stacks up. A contingency plan will be part of the long-term agreement that we have with them."
"This is a good day for Scottish football," he said. "What we are seeking to do is get a financial platform so that clubs can continue to deal with the financial problems they face."
But for Celtic and Rangers the real financial answer lies further south in England and if Blatter has his way it actually becomes a reality
Letting players' rights slip through the net
A forthcoming PFAI survey will reveal that 80 per cent of League of Ireland players polled still do not receive wage slips with their pay packets.
With problems over the UEFA Licensing System and financial instability at many clubs, such an issue, you may think, is at the bottom of the "list of important things" for the Eircom League. But for the PFAI, it highlights the battle they are having in getting clubs to properly run their affairs.
Under the Payment of Wages Act, 1991, employers must provide, with wages, a written statement of gross wages and details of all deductions made.
Furthermore, if the wages are paid by credit transfer, the statement of wages should be given to the employee as soon as possible after the credit transfer has taken place.
The survey was conducted to find out how players are being treated by clubs. Despite progress in player rights in recent years - the Bosman Ruling, recognition of players under employment law, the setting up of a Disputes Resolution Chamber - clubs, it seems, are still not following legal procedures.
If clubs are saying "so what, if we don't provide a wage slip?", apart from it being illegal, is it any wonder they are going to struggle to introduce other things, such as a club licensing system?
TG4 sheds new lights
Hurling fans will finally get to see some live NHL action this weekend, having missed out on the games last week thanks to TG4's commitment to broadcast the club football championship semi-finals.
But fans will be further disappointed that they won't be able to see live coverage of the first league hurling match to be played under floodlights when Cork take on Wexford tonight.
Instead, TG4 have a prior commitment to cover this afternoon's Sigerson Cup Final. But, as Ronan O'Coisdealbha, head of sport for TG4, points out, they were only told 10 days ago that the floodlit game was going ahead. "If we had been told in January when we were putting scheduling plans together then of course we would have covered the game," he said.
