Shamrock Rovers’ Europa League play-off round second leg game will be screened live tonight after Setanta Sports secured the rights to the game at the 11th hour – and the satellite broadcaster couldn’t resist a nice little pop at RTE’s lack of interest in the fixture.
Rovers face Partizan Belgrade in the Serbian capital this evening and the game will now be available on live TV.
The game, which kicks off at 7.30pm, will be screened on Setanta Ireland, with the Celtic-Sion Europa League fixture moving across to Setanta Sports 1.
Rovers and Partizan drew 1-1 in Tallaght last week, leaving the Hoops in with a fighting chance of becoming the first ever Irish club to reach the group stages of a European club competition.
Setanta’s marketing director Brian Quinn admitted that the importance of the game compelled the channel to go the extra mile to secure the rights – although he expected RTE to have showed more of an interest.
He said, “While it is very late to secure the rights to this game we feel that this game is of such significance to Irish soccer that it would be an absolute shame if Irish soccer fans were unable to see it.
“We have persisted all week to try to get the rights and have extended our budgets to get the game. Whilst we are delighted to have secured the rights we are also a little disappointed that the state funded broadcasters did not seem to show greater appetite to bring such a key game to Irish sports fans.
“If Shamrock Rovers can win tonight they will be into the group stages of the Europa League and that makes it a key game. We wish them well.”
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ podcast – listen to the latest episode now!
