Shamrock Rovers boss Stephen Bradley is understandably unimpressed as Irish TV companies have shown no interest in broadcasting tonight’s huge Champions League tie at home to Sparta Prague.
With only a small number of away fans travelling to Tallaght for the second qualifying round, Rovers are set to have huge support with 7,000 tickets sold 24 hours before kick-off.
He told media at a briefing on Monday:
“I think we all agree it should be. I don’t think there is any question about that,”
Bradley responded when questioned if the game should be on terrestrial TV.
🟢 𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐃𝐀𝐘 ⚪️
🆚 Sparta Prague
📍 Tallaght Stadium
⌚️ 8pm#RoversInEurope pic.twitter.com/YKuVUk5y00— Shamrock Rovers FC (@ShamrockRovers) July 23, 2024
Neither Virgin nor RTÉ expressed a desire to show Rovers’ tie at home to the Czech champions, which includes five players that featured at Euro 2024 this summer.
RTÉ explained their lack of interest by referring to their commitments to broadcast the Olympics, Paralympics and GAA among other sports. LOITV will show Rovers’ European game tonight.
Rovers come into the European tie looking to bounce back after Friday’s 1-0 loss to rivals Bohemians in the FAI Cup, the squad is also hit by suspension and injury, Jack Byrne will be absent off the back of a red card in the last round while Graham Burke, Aaron McEneff and Rory Gaffney are not yet fit.
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Speaking regarding the coverage, Bradley confirmed his frustration:
An Irish team is playing the Champions League against this level of opposition in a sold-out Tallaght Stadium. We talk about wanting to promote the game, for me it should definitely be on TV
🎵 Du-du-du-du, Johnny Kenny 🎵
Both our goals from last night's win in Tallaght including a late penalty miss that secured our place in the Champions League 2nd Qualifying Round 👇#RoversInEurope pic.twitter.com/7wpfHCz6nQ— Shamrock Rovers FC (@ShamrockRovers) July 17, 2024
He also believes that Rovers have matured when it comes to European games, even in the 12 months between a loss to one Icelandic side (Breidablik) and defeat of another (Vikingur).
I think we showed in Iceland that we’ve matured a little bit in that regard in terms of being comfortable in not having the ball, You can still be in control of the game when you are not in possession. So you’ve got to be comfortable with that. We did that really well two weeks ago. But we know this level is a lot higher. You have to be patient and stay focused for when we do have it and see if we can hurt them.
The path ahead in Europe for Rovers has become clearer after the third-round draws were made, if Rovers progress past Sparta they’d play either Maccabi Tel Aviv or Romanian champions FCSB (Steaua Bucharest) in the Champions League third round, lose to Sparta and they take on the losers of the NK Celje/Slovan Bratislava draw in the Europa League.
Worst case scenario they lose the Europa League tie and there is still a possibility of conference league group stage qualification.
