Premier Sports has formally announced plans to air up to 12 European group matches involving Irish clubs Shamrock Rovers and St Patrick’s Athletic live in Ireland. For Rovers to reach the Europa League group stages, they must first secure victory against Greece’s Super League winners, PAOK, in an upcoming playoff. This contest will commence this Thursday at Thessaloniki’s Toumba Stadium, with the return leg scheduled for Tallaght the following week.
Should Rovers lose, the team led by Stephen Bradley will enter the Uefa Conference League, a competition they participated in in 2022 but failed to progress beyond the group stage against opponents from Sweden, Belgium, and Norway.
St Patrick’s Athletic, under the guidance of former Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny, have the opportunity to join the Rovers in the reformatted contest that houses 36 teams, by defeating Istanbul Basaksehir FK. However, both playoff leg broadcasts will only be accessible through a streaming service, involving Thursday’s first leg in Tallaght and the second leg in Turkey.
The national broadcaster, RTÉ, is unable to absorb the nearly €200,000 extra cost required to televise matches involving both Irish teams across two legs over the coming week. The situation is largely due to the financial outlay incurred in broadcasting the Euro Championship in Germany and the Olympic Games from Paris.
Interestingly, none of the 18 European qualifiers involving League of Ireland clubs, such as Rovers, St Pat’s, Derry City, and Shelbourne, since July have made it on terrestrial television following the absence of bids from RTÉ, TG4, and Virgin Media. LOITV plans to broadcast both legs of the Rovers versus PAOK contest.
Shamrock Rovers expressed their disappointment on Monday about not being able to air their exciting games to a broader Irish audience, despite exhausting all possible options for the initial four rounds of European matches.“The club is mulling over whether it will accommodate future requests from the national broadcaster to broadcast SSE Airtricity Premier Division games from Tallaght Stadium in 2024,” they stated.
Crucially, according to the league’s participation agreement, the decision regarding when and where matches are televised doesn’t rest with the clubs but with the Football Association of Ireland (FAI).
RTÉ remains committed to honoring an agreement to broadcast 18 League of Ireland matches before this domestic season closes, having aired eight games so far. The FAI was advised last November that European club qualifier matches wouldn’t be televised owing to a considerable cut in RTÉ’s yearly budget.
Premier Sports holds the exclusive Irish broadcasting rights for all Europa League and Conference League matches, having the upper hand in selecting Champions League matches for Tuesday nights. RTÉ and Virgin Media also offer live broadcasting of some games, with agreed rights extending to 2027. In addition, Warner Bros-owned TNT Sports will showcase the three European club tournaments as they possess the UK broadcasting rights, which can be viewed in Ireland as well.
Following the conclusion of the draw for the Conference League fixtures in Monaco next week, Premier Sports will disclose the specifics of its coverage dedicated to Irish audiences. The updated format involves each team playing six games against six unique opponents from September to December.
Premier Sport’s two channels will broadcast four games live every Thursday, two at 6pm and two at 8pm, featuring analysis from their Dublin-based studio. To avoid simultaneous kick-offs of Rovers and St Pat’s in the Conference League, both of which may possibly feature, the station plans to stagger the timing. If that’s unworkable, the matches will be aired concurrently on Premier Sports 1 and 2.
Premier Sports, founded by Mickey O’Rourke, Shelbourne’s majority stakeholder, in 2009, is on the Sky platform in Ireland and accessible through NowTV and Virgin Media subscriptions.
Chelsea is poised to fight out with Switzerland’s Servette in the playoffs to reach the Conference League, with Fiorentina and Real Betis likely to proceed as superior seeds. Such high-calibre competition may pose a challenge to the Irish teams, especially if their league form doesn’t markedly improve on European nights at either Aviva Stadium or Tallaght. Currently, Kenny’s team holds the seventh spot in the Premier Division, with Rovers in fifth place, a full 10 points adrift of frontrunners Shelbourne.
Should they advance to the Conference League, both clubs can anticipate a prize fund of €3.17 million, with bonus payments of €400,000 for a win and €133,000 for a draw.