Republican News · Thursday 11 July 2002

Stabbed in the back

At the July meeting of Dublin City Council, an emergency motion, calling on the FAI to review its deal with Sky TV, was passed. The motion, proposed by Councillor Dessie Ellis and his Sinn Féin colleagues, calls on the FAI "to review its deal with Sky TV in the interests of the loyal football fans who now feel they have been stabbed in the back".

Ellis added: "The government has claimed that the deal was a private business transaction and was therefore out of their hands. As Dr Roddy Flynn of DCU has pointed out, it would have been possible for the government to protect the Irish internationals BEFORE the sordid deal was done. Even now, it remains possible for the FF/PD coalition to retrospectively designate the forthcoming home internationals as major events, under Irish and EU law, as many other EU countries have done.

"The government's belated promise to now draw up a list of major events, not including the home internationals, is simply trying to close the stable door after the (gift) horse has bolted."