Dawson opposes move for 'free-to-air'

RUGBY:LEINSTER CHIEF executive Mick Dawson has criticised the desire of Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan to make Heineken Cup rugby a guaranteed "free-to-air" event, a view expressed in a recent radio interview.

The Minister also wanted the Cheltenham Festival and certain All-Ireland GAA matches to fall into that category too.

Dawson, speaking at a Leinster press conference, was less circumspect. “We’ve worked very hard and the union have worked very hard, to keep the players in Ireland. We could be looking at a situation where you go back to what is was like 10 years ago, where most of the best players were playing in England and we were scratching around here. That would be very sad; the development of the game would suffer because we wouldn’t be able to afford to have as many development officers in the field.

“The better players obviously have a short window at a career like this and they would go as well. You could end up with a situation where the Minister, who obviously hasn’t thought this out, could be looking at a free-to-air situation but nobody would want to watch it.

“People want to watch competitive successful teams and if you take the best players out, people will stop supporting you and people don’t want to watch it. So I would be worried if it happens.”

Dawson pointed out that satellite broadcasters, Sky Sports, who hold the live rights to the Heineken and Amlin Challenge Cups in Ireland and Britain, make a sizeable financial contribution to the stakeholders of the tournaments, one of whom is the IRFU.

“They (Sky) are huge payers, but the real situation is that at the ERC and Six Nations tables the IRFU are able to punch their weight in terms of the game we play on the pitch and the game we play off the pitch. If you become a non-player in these negotiations because you’re bringing nothing to the table and everything is free here, then your monies just dry up.

“You could fall off the table and your influence and power could diminish completely. Obviously the money is a serious factor out of all our budgets, so I would be worried if it happened and there will be representations made at a high level.”

In other news, England’s Wayne Barnes will referee this year’s Heineken Cup final between Toulouse and Biarritz at the Stade de France on Saturday, May 22nd, while Ireland’s Alain Rolland will take charge of the Amlin Challenge Cup final involving Toulon and Cardiff in Marseilles, assisted by countrymen Alan Lewis and George Clancy.