Uefa say no to Rovers' plans

SOCCER EUROPA LEAGUE:SHAMROCK ROVERS have been refused permission by Uefa to extend the capacity of Tallaght Stadium for the visit of Juventus this week, with the result that fewer than 6,000, mainly season ticket holders and club members, will be able to attend Thursday night's Europa League game.

“Unfortunately the answer was no,” said club director Mark Lynch.

“They don’t go into explanations about their reasons, but apparently they had had quite a few requests of this type from clubs in relation to this round of the competition but they’ve decided to be pretty strict about it.

“It’s a pity, although the blow to the club is less on the financial side of things because between the cost of putting in the seats – including VAT, which we can’t claim back – and the fact that we’ve kept the cost of tickets to €25, we only really stood to make an extra €15,000 or so.

“On a normal Friday night that would be big money, but in the context of this game it’s not the most important thing. The greater loss is what 3,000 extra people would have added to the atmosphere in Tallaght, it would have been terrific.”

Lynch anticipates the club doing well out of the game but insists it is not quite the licence to print money that has been suggested.

“I’d say the overall profit including the €90,000 from Uefa will be something like €300,000,” he says.

“That’s a great windfall, I certainly wouldn’t try to diminish it in any way, but it’s still only about a third of the figures I’ve seen quoted in one or two places.”

It might have been more, he acknowledges, but for the terribly short turnaround from last week’s win in Israel.

“One thing I’ve learned is that if you need an instant answer to something that involves a significant amount of money in the current climate, then the only one you’re likely to get is ‘no’.

“Still, it’s nice to be able to give something back to our fans and existing sponsors. There’s a real buzz around Tallaght at the moment, a few of our sponsors will hopefully do well out of the event and it will be nice to welcome the others to such a big occasion.

“There’s a fairly novel aspect to our match sponsor, too, with the Irish Traditional Italian Chipper Association coming on board.”

On the TV front, Lynch explains, the money on offer has fallen well short of what it might have been a few years ago when the advertising market was a good deal more buoyant, but Mediaset will screen the game in Italy while here it will be broadcast live by RTÉ.

“That’s a good thing from our point of view,” he says.

“We get a lot more exposure on television now than we would have done a few years back, but the reality is that a lot more barstoolers will tune in for this game than ever would for one against the likes of Sporting Fingal, and the exposure like that is a good thing.”