WORLD CUP QUALIFIER:THE FAI will receive around €5 million from free-to-air broadcaster M6 for the French rights to next week's World Cup play-off game at Croke Park, much the same amount it obtained when Raymond Domenech's side last came to Dublin in 2005.
The figure, which was agreed within days of the draw being made, keeps the association on course to generate more than €10 million in revenue from the game, with gate receipts expected to come in at roughly €4 million and other commercial and broadcasting revenues making up the difference.
The deal with M6 has been greeted with surprise in France due to the French Football Federation’s (FFF) close relationship with rival broadcaster TF1. It has the rights to the French team’s home games and the federation has generally sought to assist it in securing away games too.
In this case, the station appears to have been significantly outbid, and there is said to be some bad feeling on the part of its executives in the wake of the negotiations.
FAI officials declined to comment on the deal yesterday, citing a confidentiality agreement signed with the successful bidder.
The outcome, though, will not impress French coach Domenech, who is due to name his squad for the two games on Thursday.
M6 owns French champions Girondins de Bordeaux, whose coach, Laurent Blanc, will be the station’s “special guest” at the Dublin game. Blanc is widely regarded as Domenech’s most likely successor in the role of national team coach.
The FAI look increasingly unlikely to put any tickets for Saturday week’s home leg on general sale, although a final decision on the matter will not be taken until Thursday, at the earliest, when the FFF is due to confirm whether it will be taking its full allocation.
A spokesman for the Irish association said yesterday that, because of the practicalities of segregation, the French would have to return a significant number of tickets for it to have any real impact.
Even then, he said, he did not want to generate “any false hope”, as there have been “very high levels of demand”.
That demand was fuelled by, among other things, the use of this game as an incentive to supporters to buy tickets for the final game of the group stage against Montenegro.
As things stand, the situation is even worse for the game in Paris with the FAI’s allocation hugely oversubscribed in the wake of measures aimed at preventing Irish supporters obtaining seats in sections reserved for local fans.
Roughly 16,000 requests have been received for half that number of tickets, and with “block bookers” receiving priority many other supporters are expected to be left empty-handed unless an additional allocation is received from the French. That looks rather unlikely in the wake of their own sale going so well.
“We’ve continued to request additional seating,” said the FAI spokesman, “but at the moment the chances of us being able to satisfy everyone aren’t looking great.”
The association is already disappointing quite a few people in relation to its block booking scheme which, it has been informing supporters by post in recent days, will not be extended when the redeveloped Lansdowne Road opens next year. There were around 33,000 fans purchasing tickets under the scheme prior to the move to Croke Park a couple of season ago, but many of the more than 10,000 or so supporters on the waiting list have been able to buy since because of the much greater capacity at the GAA stadium.
It had been hoped some would continue to be facilitated after the move back across the city, but the association said yesterday that the numbers of “general admission” tickets would remain unchanged at 33,000 and that, as a result, fewer than 100 people would make it off the waiting list when the list of purchasers is updated.
The association has set aside 10,000 tickets for its much trumpeted Vantage ticket scheme – it continues to decline to confirm how many have been sold amid speculation that the figures have been poor – while the other 7,000 will, it says, be accounted for by visiting supporters, dignitaries and a variety of other smaller groupings.
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