If there's one thing that everybody associated with the National League has been agreed upon in recent years it's that the coverage the game has received from our national television broadcaster has been abysmal.

The conclusion generally drawn was RTE simply had, the national team aside, no interest in the domestic scene and that the people who ran television sport there were far happier to be carrying an English FA Cup tie between any two teams at all on a Saturday afternoon than devoting air time to the endeavours of clubs like Cork, Derry or Dundalk.

An alternative theory was that the powers that be in Montrose cared not one bit whether what they covered was English or Irish. It could, in fact, be Swedish, Peruvian or Chinese for all it mattered as long as it was (a) cheap (free if possible), and (b) easy.

The fact that crowd pullers like Australian Rules football have, for some time now, made up a substantial part of the sports schedule supported the argument but last Wednesday night it was proven beyond reasonable doubt with the introduction of the long awaited Irish soccer magazine programme.

Disaster loomed from the moment that it was announced that RTE had simply handed the slot over to the FAI and its newly founded TV production company to do with as they wished. Sure enough, what we got was a corporate promotion for the association with all the usual excitement of the genre and a voice over straight out of the cinema advertising industry.

Both organisations are, of course, to blame but the FAI can at least be partially excused on the basis that it never should have been put in the position. The predicament, it is a politically run organisation with a great many different constituencies to serve, was reflected in the 30 minute show. A bland recollection of the tremendous success of the under-20 team in Malaysia - all the goals but, three months on not the slightest attempt to bring us up to date with the players or the effect the team's success had or failed to have on their careers - was followed by a soft piece on groundsmen.

The National League season is a month old but while Cork have soared to the top of the table and Derry have struggled to find their feet there was no mention of the new campaign. The fact the Saint Patrick's Athletic would play Shelbourne in front of more than 5,000 people didn't warrant a mention.

Nope, week one's National League slot was devoted to Shamrock Rovers and their projected move to Tallaght, a perfectly reasonable subject to do a feature on were it not for the fact that the feature in question was no more than a puff piece for the club and its sponsors which failed to raise a single pertinent question, or even mention for that matter, the difficulties currently being experienced by Rovers as they try to get the move underway. Safer, instead to mention the club's women's teams, after all that's another of the association's sections ticked off the list.

Nor was the strong start made by Mick Byrne's side in the league mentioned although that, like the absence of anything topical with regard to the Tallaght move, could doubtless be put down to the entire package having been prepared a ridiculous amount of time in advance.

Basically it all seemed like terribly safe and desperately uninspiring stuff which, even more remarkably, was rounded off by a coaching section. Quite how the FAI work out that giving kids brief hints on how to dribble, defend or shoot is the best way to use peak hour viewing time when tens of thousands of football spectators of all ages are waiting to watch a Champions league game is, I must admit, entirely beyond me.

Of course, the FAI should never have been handed the task of making the programme. This sort of show should have been able to cover every aspect of the Irish game without fear of interference. As it is what can we expect the next time a ticketing scandal breaks out, what will it say about the lack of a national football stadium and what about the week to week developments in the National League?

What was required, in fact, was just the sort of freedom, flexibility and expertise a national broadcaster supported by a licence fee is supposed to enjoy. But then that, it seems, simply would have been far too much bother to go to for the Irish game.