Both legs of the 2024/25 UEFA Europa League play-off between Shamrock Rovers and PAOK of Greece will be streamed live on LOITV, and the club has issued a warning that it may well not facilitate RTÉ from showing home games in the future.

The club issued a statement today saying that it had “exhausted every avenue across the four rounds of European matches to deliver matches on a free to air National broadcaster, but to no avail.”

“Live streaming has provided fans with the option to follow the Hoops home and away in Europe in July and August.”

“Negotiations have concluded that will allow Rovers fans in Ireland and the UK watch a stream of the first leg from the Toumba Stadium in Thessaloniki live on Thursday with a kick off time of 6.30pm Irish time.”

The second leg at Tallaght Stadium on August 29th will also be available on the LOITV platform and available worldwide excluding Greece and Cyprus.

“It has been a disappointment that these thrilling games have not been showcased to a wider Irish audience,” continued the statement.

“The drama of a last minute penalty miss in our first home tie advancing the team to UCL QR2, 9,500 fans packed into Tallaght Stadium for a great match against Sparta Prague and, finally, the turnaround from an away first leg loss to beat Celje in extra time to make the UECL League phase (at a minimum), have all taken place with no free-to-air coverage and now, the visit of PAOK will not be broadcast on terrestrial Irish TV.”

“The club is considering if it will facilitate any future requests from the National broadcaster to show SSE Airtricity Premier Division fixtures from Tallaght Stadium in 2024.”

Clearly the negotiations would have been impacted by the commitment to the Olympics but it appears that with no obvious clash this week, and next week’s Paralympic Games notwithstanding, the Rovers management have been exasperated by a lack of willingness to show the games.

 

 

 

 

 

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