Liveline’s Kieran Cuddihy with Troy Parrot’s family. Photo: RTÉ
Cash-strapped RTÉ sent 41 members of staff over to the World Cup qualifiers in Prague, more than the Irish team and coaching staff itself.
The public broadcaster put in place a massive operation in Czechia as Irish fans dreamed of the team making it into its first World Cup since 2002. Irish fans travelled to the country to watch the game from the Fortuna Arena or nearby pubs, which ended in heartbreak.
It wasn’t to be after a 2-2 score led to penalties which Czechia won 4-2. However, even if Ireland won the match it still had one more step with the play-off final to make it into the World Cup.
For days leading up to the match RTÉ interviewed fans across its different channels including social media. In response to a Freedom of Information request, RTÉ confirmed that 41 staff from RTÉ were sent to Prague for the World Cup qualifier match.
This included 12 people in on-air roles, six in journalism roles and 12 people across editorial production roles for live coverage before, during and after the event. Nine members of staff from RTÉ’s technical teams were sent over while two from its commercial partnership team worked on “sponsorship of both match and live radio programmes and social media content”.
This number compares with the 25 man playing squad selected for the match, and is still higher when coaching staff including Heimir Hallgrimsson, John O’Shea, Paddy McCarthy, Gudmundur Hreidarsson, Damien Doyle and Shane Power are taken into account.
On top of coverage on both television stations, radio stations and social media, Liveline with Kieran Cuddihy was broadcast live from The Irish Times Bar in the Old Town of Prague on RTÉ Radio 1 on the day of the game.
The public broadcaster refused a Freedom of Information request asking how much it cost to send all 41 staff to Prague. It said: “Costs are still being finalised and this is likely to take some time. When the costs have been determined, RTÉ will publish information on our website.
“It should be noted that no other public service broadcaster in the world publishes such details. However, RTÉ will be doing so in the spirit of openness and transparency.” After being queried why a high number of staff was sent over, RTÉ said it was one of the “biggest sporting days” for the nation in a generation and one of the biggest days for the Republic of Ireland men’s soccer team in decades.
A spokesperson added: “RTÉ brought the nation to the heart of the action, but also to the exciting build up from Prague as excitement built towards the game.
“In addition to delivering live coverage and analysis of the match, across our television, radio, online services and across our social media accounts, RTÉ put together a schedule of programmes and content that allowed Irish fans who couldn’t be there to join in the excitement on what was wonderful and joyous occasion for the nation as Ireland sought to qualify for the FIFA World Cup for the first time since 2002.
“All those travelling were involved in the delivery of this schedule of programmes and content. RTÉ had a large scale commercial partnership.” They said RTÉ2’s coverage was watched by an average of 1.37 million viewers accounting for 78% of those watching television at the time, making it the most-watched programme of the year so far on TV in Ireland.
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