The race to bring some sort of coverage of the Republic of Ireland’s World Cup play-off against France to an Irish audience was still ongoing tonight but there were expressions of confidence from some quarters.
While the official line from RTE was that negotiations with the French Football Federation (FFF) were still ongoing, their Soccer Correspondent Tony O’Donoghue reported “significant progress” on Six One News this evening.
The national broadcaster is bidding for television and radio rights but faces competition on both fronts from TV3, Sky Sports and Newstalk 106-108fm.
The latter announced it had “entered negotiations to bring this important game to the Irish people free of charge,” at lunchtime yesterday.
Sky Sports are in the running to televise the fixture but refused to comment yesterday, while TV3, like RTE, have bid a six figure sum, with the FFF known to be demanding over €1million.
No exact figures have been disclosed but it was reported in France that the FFF was seeking €1.5 million for the rights. Le Parisien newspaper claimed last week that RTE had tabled an offer of €600,000.
RTE has confirmed an average of 858,000 viewers watched the first leg of the play-off at Croke Park on Saturday.
The numbers peaked at 1,101,000 during the final minute of the game.
As long as it remains unresolved, there is the possibility on Wednesday of a repeat of the 1999 scenario when the away leg of a Euro 2000 play-off against Turkey in Bursa was not broadcast in this country.
On that occasion, the Turkish FA was looking for €3 million for the television rights, a price that no broadcaster was willing to meet.
In the meantime, pubs across the country have been making their own arrangements to pipe in the game via satellite. The Submarine Bar in Dublin, for example, are “100 per cent certain” that whatever happens with regards the rights, they will be showing the match.
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