Opposition grows in Fianna Fáil to plan for free-to-air rugby

OIREACHTAS COMMITTEE:FIANNA FÁIL opposition to Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan's plans to designate key rugby matches as free-to-air for television continues to grow.

Three members of the party, former minister for sports John O’Donoghue and senators Pascal Mooney and Larry Butler, yesterday backed a motion at an Oireachtas committee supporting the Irish Rugby Football Union’s stance against Mr Ryan’s plans.

The motion proposed by Fine Gael’s Olivia Mitchell at the joint committee on sport called for the IRFU to continue to have the independence to deal with broadcasters in the way it felt best served the game.

The motion, which was passed without a vote, also called on Minister for Sport Mary Hanafin to make this view known at Cabinet and during a consultation process.

Mr O’Donoghue, repeating criticism he made of his Government colleague’s proposal earlier this week, said the plan was “all about killing the golden goose”. The success of Irish rugby was directly related to the level of funding it received and future generations would not be served by the “destruction” of the game, he told the committee.

IRFU chief executive Philip Browne told the committee Mr Ryan’s plans would devastate the sport for generations to come by costing the organisation €10 million to €12 million a year and putting an end to the sports mass appeal.

He also predicted that the game’s leading players would move abroad and the number of professional teams in Ireland would decline if the plan were implemented.

His stance won broad support from members of the committee, with the exception of Green Party Senator Dan Boyle who commented that the IRFU knew “the price of everything and the value of nothing”.

The IRFU earns €11 million a year from the revenue generated by televising the Six Nations tournament, and €5 million from the Heineken Cup, a total of €11 million more than the actual value of Irish television rights, according to new figures presented to the committee by Mr Browne. He was supported in his arguments by the chiefs of Six Nations Rugby Ltd and European Rugby Cup Ltd, two companies based in Dublin which run the Six Nations and Heineken Cup tournaments, respectively.

John Feehan, chief executive of Six Nations Rugby, said international satellite broadcasters viewed Ireland and the UK as a single market and any interference would make the entire market less attractive. The proposals were a corruption and a distortion of the market.

He told Fine Gael’s John O’Mahony he could not give a guarantee that Six Nations matches would remain free-to-air when the rights come up for negotiation in three years’ time. “I can’t afford to upset the entire applecart for the sake of one market.”

Mr Boyle said the IRFU presentation was “all about money”.

Some €150 million had been raised from the sale of 10-year tickets for the new Aviva stadium on Lansdowne Road, as well as €40 million in marketing rights, but the IRFU had given no information about future income from sources other than television rights, he said.