Post by groo on Apr 27, 2007 20:17:11 GMT 5
SKY Sports will show Northern Irish football live following a deal announced today by the Irish Football Association.
Full internationals, Under-21 matches and Carnegie Premier League games will be shown live on Sky Sports across the UK and the Republic ofIreland under the arrangement, the first between Sky Sports and the Irish FA.
The award means that Northern Ireland’s qualifying matches for the 2010 World Cup and 2012 European Championships will be exclusively live on Sky Sports. The new live broadcast deal includes:
• FULL INTERNATIONALS: All home matches for four years from May 2008, including qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup Finals and 2012 European Championship Finals, plus friendly matches – exclusively live on Sky Sports.
• UNDER-21 INTERNATIONALS: At least two U-21 matches each season for four years, from the start of 2008-09 until the close of 2011-12 – exclusively live on Sky Sports.
• PREMIER LEAGUE: Five live fixtures each season from the Carnegie Premier League for five years, starting this August and running until the end of 2011-2012.
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Personally I feel that this has been a decent enough move by the IFA. In fairness as someone pointed out we all complained for pish poor features on Sky Sports News, but that is now changing. We have to be careful not to shoot ourselves in the foot now and keep a consistant progress during the next few years.
The money is a big boost for IFA, but I feel sorry for the more senior supporters who don't have Sky Sports. Maybe they can now make a wee trip to the Bot to get involved in the atmosphere, lol!!
Bye to Andy Gray and Jackie Fullerton and I have a sneaking suspicion that we could have a big welcome to 'Sir Gerry Armstrong' for commentating!
