Premier Sports have confirmed that a potential 12 European group games involving Shamrock Rovers and St Patrick’s Athletic will be broadcast live in Ireland.
Rovers need to overcome PAOK, the Greek Super League champions, in a playoff to reach the Europa League group stages, with the first leg on Thursday evening at the Toumba Stadium in Thessaloniki and the second leg in Tallaght next Thursday.
If defeated, Stephen Bradley’s side go into the Uefa Conference League, a competition they reached in 2022 only to finish bottom of a group that included Swedish, Norwegian and Belgian opposition.
St Pat’s, under former Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny, can join Rovers in the newly formatted 36-team competition by overcoming Istanbul Basaksehir FK. The first-leg playoff on Thursday in Tallaght and second leg in Turkey are only available on a streaming service.
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RTÉ cannot afford the additional cost of almost €200,000 to televise both Irish clubs over two legs in the next seven days due to budgetary constraints caused by covering the Euros in Germany and the Olympic Games in Paris.
None of the 18 European qualifiers involving League of Ireland clubs – Rovers, St Pat’s, Derry City and Shelbourne – since July have been available on terrestrial television as RTÉ, TG4 and Virgin Media did not bid for them. LOITV will show both legs of Shamrock Rovers versus PAOK.
“The club exhausted every avenue across the four rounds of European matches to deliver matches on a free to air national broadcaster, but to no avail,” read a Shamrock Rovers statement on Monday. “It has been a disappointment that these thrilling games have not been showcased to a wider Irish audience.
“The club is considering if it will facilitate any future requests from the national broadcaster to show SSE Airtricity Premier Division fixtures from Tallaght Stadium in 2024.”
Under the league’s participation agreement, the FAI decide when and where games are televised, not the clubs involved.
RTÉ fully intend to honour an agreement to show 18 League of Ireland games before the domestic season concludes. Up to May, they had broadcast eight fixtures. Last November, they informed the FAI that European club qualifiers would not be televised, after being forced to reduce their annual budget by a six-figure amount.
Premier Sports have exclusive Irish rights to show every game in the Europa League and Conference League. They also have first choice for Champions League matches on Tuesday nights while RTÉ and Virgin Media also provide live coverage of certain fixtures having agreed separate rights up to 2027.
TNT Sports, now owed by Warner Bros, will also broadcast the three European club competitions as they hold the UK rights, which are accessible in Ireland.
After the Conference League fixtures are finalised at next week’s draw in Monaco, Premier Sports will announce details of their Irish-specific coverage. The new format has each team playing six games against six different opponents from September to December.
Four matches will be shown live across Premier Sport’s two channels every Thursday, two at 6pm and two more at 8pm, with analysis from their Dublin studio. The station plans to avoid Rovers and St Pat’s kicking off at the same time, should they both end up in the Conference League. If this proves unavoidable, the games will run concurrently on Premier Sports 1 and 2.
Premier Sports was formed in 2009 by Shelbourne majority shareholder Mickey O’Rourke. Its channels are on the Sky platform in Ireland but can also be accessed via NowTV and Virgin Media subscriptions.
Chelsea face Servette of Switzerland in the playoffs to reach the Conference League while Fiorentina and Real Betis are expected to progress as top seeds. Such a high standard may prove beyond the Irish sides, certainly if their league form is not dramatically enhanced come European nights at either Tallaght or the Aviva Stadium. Kenny’s team are currently seventh in the Premier Division and Rovers are fifth, 10 points behind leaders Shelbourne.
Progress to the Conference League would guarantee both clubs €3.17 million in prize money and additional payments of €400,000 for a win and €133,000 for a draw.
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