Turks may be revenue delight for FAI

BECAUSE OF its large population and strong interest in the game, Turkey is regarded as one of Europe’s most lucrative television rights markets for major football matches and 12 years ago when Ireland were drawn against the Turks at the same stage of this competition the association took in around €750,000 from deals with broadcasters there and in Britain.

That figure could increase very significantly this time around and when the increased gate and commercial receipts, both of which should be boosted by the Republic of Ireland being drawn against the strongest side and largest nation amongst the four non-seeded sides, the enormously cash-strapped organisation would be expected to comfortably enjoy a seven-figure pay day.

Irish broadcasters, of course, might be a little nervous about the prospect of having to negotiate rights for an away game against Guus Hiddink’s side. Twelve years ago Star TV struck a deal with the Turkish FA for the foreign rights to the game and they promptly demanded $1 million to allow the game to be shown here, a figure that quickly trebled during negotiations with RTÉ.

Broadcast revenues for games involving the Bosnians, Montenegrins or Estonians, on the other hand, would be far lower with much smaller populations inevitably meaning much reduced budgets for the television companies.

In the event that Giovanni Trapattoni’s men are drawn against Estonia, however, Delaney and co are likely to take considerable consolation from the fact that their would-be opponents’ position in the world ranking list suggests Ireland would have a strong chance of progressing to the finals where the rewards would be even more lucrative.

Uefa, in fact, confirmed the levels of prize-money that will be available to finalists earlier this year with the overall fund for participants increased significantly again. If they make it through, in fact, Ireland would get more for participating in Poland and Ukraine than Brazil got for winning the World Cup in 2002, the last major championship at which the FAI was represented.

The South Americans received around €5.5 million in prize-money for lifting the trophy on that occasion whereas each of the competing nations in next summer’s finals would be guaranteed €8 million, with additional payments of €1 million and €500,000 for group wins and draws respectively.

The eventual champions can expect to pick up something in the region of €22.5 million from Uefa and all of the participating associations, including the FAI, would expect to generate sizeable additional revenues from related commercial deals, bonuses from existing sponsors and increased ticket revenues for games before and after the finals.

The players, of course, will take a chunk of that, but obviously their immediate priority is to secure their place at a major finals and Shay Given is adamant that they will be glad of anything that helps them get there next summer.

“I said before and I’ll reiterate, I don’t think anyone should be seeded,” he says. “But if we get a slight advantage from that then we’ll take it. If teams have done well enough to get second, they should just pile into a pot and you deserve whoever you get, but people in higher places than me make these decisions.

“As it is, I’ve no preference, it’s the luck of the draw really and whoever you get, you’ll study them and hopefully beat them. Anyway, whoever it is we do draw, they’ll not be too happy to face us in two tough games.”

The goalkeeper, who captained Ireland in Robbie Keane’s absence on Tuesday night but admitted to having been disappointed with his own performance and, in particular, his failure to prevent the Armenian goal, welcomed the fact that the Aviva Stadium was nearly full for the last qualifier and expressed the hope that the supporters will turn out in even greater numbers for the play-off.

“They were fantastic,” he said, “but we’ll need them again next month – it will be a huge game whoever we get in the play-offs. It (the Armenia game) was by far the best atmosphere since we’ve come to the Aviva. Hopefully next month will be the same.”

Ireland’s play-off record – five defeats by European opponents and just one victory, over Iran, in 2001 – suggests that the team can do with all the support they can get.