FAI gain member support for Sky deal
Football Association of Ireland delegates voted unanimously in favour of the sale of rights to home internationals for the next four years to BSkyB at their AGM this evening.
They agreed to back chief executive Brendan Menton and honorary treasurer John Delaney in their handling of the situation, which effectively blocks RTE from live coverage of those games.
The Government had been opposed to an exclusive deal with Sky and wanted to ring-fence major sporting events for terrestrial television.
Menton said: ‘‘Whatever the outcome of the current controversy, be it in the courts, legislation or from the EU, the value of sports rights has changed in favour of the sporting organisations.’’
Delaney hammered home the reasons why the FAI wanted to go on board with Sky even though he admitted they initially wanted to continue to do business with RTE.
‘‘The RTE offer, following nine months of negotiations, was €1.6m compared to Sky’s €7.6m, a difference of over 400%. Then you have to remember that the RTE offer was 37% less than their previous four-year deal with the association,’’ said Delaney.
‘‘The FAI made an offer to RTE for some 20% less than the Sky offer. But given the station’s position, the FAI would have been irresponsible to decline the Sky offer.
‘‘Despite what has been said in certain quarters, Government grant finance of €20m goes directly to the clubs and is NOT part of the FAI’s revenue streams.’’
At the Council meeting which followed, Galway man Kevin Fahy , a long-term representative of the Football Association of Irish Schools, was elected to the post of honorary secretary.
Fahy succeeds Dundalk man Des Casey, who had announced his intention to retire several weeks ago.
But Casey, a senior vice-president of UEFA, will continue to be part of the team bidding to stage the Euro 2008 finals in Ireland and Scotland.
Menton only briefly touched on the unforeseen problems which cropped up for the FAI in Saipan prior to the World Cup finals, when national team captain Roy Keane was sent home by manager Mick McCarthy for criticising the training facilities on the Pacific island.
‘‘The association made detailed plans for the World Cup, but did not expect a crisis of the magnitude that arose in Saipan. Hence our manpower there was insufficient to respond adequately,’’ added Menton.
‘‘Apart from this issue I am confident that the independent review of our preparations will demonstrate that our overall organisation for the World Cup was good and that the hotel and training facilities were excellent.’’
