RUGBY:IRFU CHIEF executive Philip Browne yesterday described Minister Eamon Ryan's proposals to have Ireland's Six Nations games and Heineken Cup matches designated free-to-air as "seriously misguided" and warned the proposal constituted the greatest threat to rugby in Ireland since the game went professional in 1995.

The chief executives of the Six Nations and the ERC, John Feehan and Derek McGrath, strongly supported Browne’s contention that, if implemented, the proposal would result in the IRFU losing 18 per cent (€12 million) of its annual television income.

Roughly €9.5 million of that would be from the IRFU’s share of the Six Nations television deal and the remainder from the ERC, where Leinster and Munster games are assured of deferred highlights on RTÉ.

The IRFU, said Browne, does not have the cash reserves to replace such a fall in income. As a non-profit organisation, all of its annual income is ploughed back into the sport each year to support the professional teams (€36 million), domestic/club rugby (€10 million), administration, overheads and marketing (€6 million) and depreciation and interest (€5 million).

It is also at the beginning of a long-term commitment to repay its share of the Aviva Stadium.

“That repayment schedule for our debt is entirely based on a business model that currently exists,” said Browne. “Minister Ryan seeks to change our business model without any thought of the consequences for our sport. I just think that is absolutely cracked.”

Warning of a rapid spiral of decline in Irish rugby, Browne acknowledged there had to be a balance between terrestrial television and free-to-air, equally a balance was needed with the revenue-generating potential of subscription and pay-per-view television.

“It could take us a generation or more to turn it around if he’s wrong,” Browne warned. “If he’s wrong, he’s playing and gambling with the future of Irish rugby. Does he want that on his head, that he personally brought down Irish rugby on the back of a hunch?”

Minister Ryan cites the French government’s decision to A-list their Six Nations games on free-to-air, though no such restrictions are in place in Britain.

Feehan said the Six Nations committee would strive to ensure its tournament would always remain free-to-air, but that “we have a serious issue with being told we have to only be on terrestrial television.

“If this goes through,” he added, it could leave Ireland “on their own” with “a net decrease from my organisation alone of around €9 million per year.”

Likewise, McGrath said: “This unwarranted proposal to restrict our commercial activity would drastically reduce the funds that we disperse to Irish rugby.”

McGrath said of their meeting last week, “He (Ryan) loves what’s happening with rugby. He likes the success. But when we left the meeting we left very, very concerned that he just doesn’t get it.”

At the heart of the rift is loss of revenue. “How is he going to replace €12 million?” asked Browne. “Let him come up with the answers, because I can tell you the notion that there is €12 million of sponsorship out there waiting to fill that funding gap is nonsense.

“The reality is that sponsors aren’t interested in mediocrity and in poorly performing professional teams. They’re interested in successful teams. That is why our sponsorship programme is full to capacity, because we do have successful teams at provincial level and at national level.”

Fine Gael communications spokesman Simon Coveney strongly criticised the Government and the Minister’s “new approach” to broadcasting rights. “The problem with this approach is that it puts at risk the very funding stream that has made Irish rugby the success that it has become in recent years.

“The reason rugby commands such big audiences is because our teams are winning, our existing structures are working and we should be very slow to change that,” said Coveney.

But speaking on RTÉ Radio One last night, the Minister disputed the anticipated loss of €12 million and maintained that it would materialise through increased sponsorship on the back of increased television audiences, and that his proposals were designed to protect Irish sport, not just rugby.

“I respect the IRFU have their position and their view and we’ll certainly listen to it,” he said.

But he cited a reduction of four-fifths in general audiences for Heineken Cup matches shown on pay-per-view, growing to nine-tenths among children.

“In the long run that’s the biggest threat to your revenue,” said Ryan, adding: “I’m listening to the IRFU. This is a consultation process, but I just think people should just think. All I ask is that people think again.

“This is a complex issue, it involves important social, broadcasting and cultural issues. It bears consideration, it bears thought and it bears debate.”