RTE bid not in ballpark say FAI

The FAI has hit back at suggestions that they effectively placed a premium on financial gain over the interests of Irish soccer supporters by accepting British Sky Broadcasting's €7.5 million offer for the exclusive rights to Republic of Ireland internationals.

On a day when the Minister for Sport, John O'Donoghue was the latest to express his displeasure with the FAI following a meeting at Government Buildings yesterday, soccer's governing body provided some concrete figures to support their case. "The difference between what RTÉ was prepared to offer and that of Sky was quite significant," said FAI treasurer John Delaney.

The proposal RTÉ tabled to renew their contract with the FAI cited a figure of €400,000 per anum and that would have equated to a €1.6 million cash payment over the timeframe of the contract compared to Sky's offer of €7.5 million.

RTÉ factored in the cost incurred in covering matches such as cameras, outside broadcast units etc whereas that was never an issue for Sky.

"In fact Sky are going to be in a position to bring an extra six cameras to the matches, thereby improving the quality of coverage," Delaney said. "Theirs was a strictly cash deal with all other costs being picked up by them. We offered RTÉ the opportunity of a 20 per cent reduction on Sky's figure but they were giving us significantly less money than they had provided the last time, which we found very hard to understand."

Delaney said RTÉ paid €635,000 for the Irish rights to cover Ireland's World Cup qualifying campaign and friendly internationals.

He pointed out that the new Sky/TV3 proposal undertook to provide comprehensive coverage of the domestic game. He added that the FAI, through himself and general secretary Brendan Menton had been transparent in their dealing with Minister O'Donoghue.

"We provided the Minister with a copy of RTÉ's previous contract with us, their present proposal, that of Sky and our annual accounts that highlighted the fact that our total reserves are €1 million. We have nothing to fear and gave him access to everything.

"The meeting had been prearranged and certainly wasn't confined to the television arrangements. In rough terms we probably spent about 15 minutes talking about the television deal and about 20 or 25 on discussions revolving around the bid for the 2008 European Championships."

The minister confessed to being "disappointed" following the meeting with the FAI officials, but he said the contract with Sky could not be reversed. "We had a very full and frank meeting, and I stressed the need to find a way of trying to resolve this controversy. I explained there were a lot of people who were now going to find it difficult to see their (Republic of Ireland) games.

"But the problem is that the FAI have signed their contract, and it is done and dusted to that extent. I am still disappointed at what happened. I had a meeting last week with the FAI and this was not mentioned."

The reason it was not mentioned, according to Delaney, is that they met with the minister last Thursday morning and were to meet RTÉ later that day, so the association was in no position to confirm any deal. He added that RTÉ offered the FAI what amounted to a holding deal and Irish soccer's governing body wanted to bring an end to nine months of negotiation.

Delaney confirmed that the FAI is examining possible ways of showing the soccer fixtures at community centres and other venues around the country. They are also examining the feasibility of open-air sites similar to those employed in South Korea during last month's World Cup finals.

FAI general secretary Brendan Menton said: "I think we saw it in Korea, where there was an open air party of 250,000 people watching their team play. It was fantastic and these are some of the ideas we are going to explore, both with Sky and our supporters."

The FAI also met the Irish Soccer Supporters' Association yesterday to discuss plans on how they could provide supporters with access and this theme was also dealt with in two meetings with Sky officials yesterday.

Delaney was adamant: "We (the FAI) are prepared to be judged on how we spend the money of developing the game in Ireland. In the short term there will be identifiable projects and appointments to support this."

The GAA was quick to dismiss any notion that they would adopt a similar policy to the FAI. GAA president Seán McCague said: "I have already spelt it out before that Gaelic games will always be available on terrestrial television. People have a right to see the games and we want to afford them the opportunity to do that. We will not be going down the road of pay-per-view."

In Britain a Sky deal with Football League chief executive David Burns will lead to him being asked to resign by first division club chairmen today. The chairmen will meet Burns to voice their anger over the £90 million four-year deal which they claim does not represent value for money and binds them to a contract that will lead to financial losses.

They will demand that Burns resigns because he did not consult them during negotiations with Sky and because they did not approve any deal.