Ireland’s recent strengthening relationship with China will be bolstered again with this summer’s Euro 2012 Finals being broadcast free to air to 360 million homes across the country.
CCTV-5 has won the broadcast rights and will show 27 games live through TV, internat and mobile, as well as highlights and magazine style programming.  These are likely to include Ireland’s matches against Croatia, Spain and Italy in June
Perhaps Bord Failte and the IDA should sponsor some of the banners to be produced by travelling fans in order to make best use of the global opportunity.
Tuesday’s other stories
Sporting WiFi for Dublin
New sponsor for Punchestown feature
This may be seen as intruding upon the raw fan participation but running a competition for the best designed to support the team and promote Ireland would be optional for fans, could provide global coverage worth millions and might only cost the price of travel to the tournament for the winning fans.  If only from a PR perspective it has merit.