A court battle is looming between the Government and the FAI over the sale of television rights for Irish home soccer internationals to Sky Television.
An FAI source told The Irish Times last night that preliminary legal advice to the organisation over the weekend was "not at one" with the advice the Attorney General has given the Government. The early advice to the FAI is that the Government cannot change the rules retrospectively, the source added.
However, there is a strong legal precedent which appears to show the Government has the right to protect international soccer matches for free television, and to apply this protection retrospectively to the FAI's deal with Sky, which is a subscriber channel.
The British House of Lords last year ruled that Denmark's qualifying matches for the World Cup had to be shown on terrestrial television, which is available to all the population. A satellite and cable company, TV Danmark, had bought the rights to the matches in Britain, in contravention of Danish law.
Since Sky, like TV Danmark, is based in Britain, the House of Lords decision is crucial to the present row over its deal with the FAI. The Lords decided the right of the public in one EU member state to watch an event, which had been designated as of key importance for society, should not be affected by whether the broadcaster was in that or another EU member state. On Friday the Government told the FAI that it bore the primary responsibility for solving the controversy caused by the sale of television rights for home soccer internationals to Sky.
Meanwhile the Government is to establish a forum to discuss the issues which have arisen from the sale of television rights for Irish home soccer internationals to Sky Television. The Minister for Communications, Mr Ahern, revealed yesterday that he is to invite submissions from the public on how to safeguard national sporting and cultural events in the future.