GAA President Liam O’Neill has rejected claims that his comments about access to Sky Sports were insulting.
O’Neill was interviewed on RTÉ’s Six One News after the announcement that Sky Sports had secured television rights to Gaelic Games for the first time, with a question focusing on subscriptions to the broadcaster.
The GAA President claimed that asking supporters to pay for the coverage was a trade-off for increased international access and fans without subscriptions or unable to afford them could go to the games or to somebody with Sky access.
Challenged that the GAA are sacrificing fans at home, O’Neill said that “there was not a family in Ireland at the moment that does not have a person abroad.
“In Australia, Britain, a huge number of Irish people abroad: they’re going to get access that they've never got before.”
He conceded that not every family in Ireland had access to Sky Sports, and said, “all they have to do [...] in many cases, is go to a person who has Sky.
“The trade-off is that the members of the families who are outside of Ireland will have access to our games.”
Speaking to RTÉ Sport's Game On shortly afterwards, O’Neill responded to a listener's belief that his comments were insulting.
“I think terms like insulting are a bit too much. I was responding to a question on live television and it is much different from you and I talking here.
“Live television is a forum that doesn't give you much time to think or respond to. The line of questioning was pushing me in a certain line where he was trying to suggest that anybody that wanted to watch the game would have to pay the (over) €700 subscription. That is not true.
“You don't have to do it. You can go to the games. To say it is insulting is the sort of comment we get and is not really helpful to get comments like that.”
“Those that want to constantly refer to those that won't get to see those games will harp on and quite frankly you couldn't please everybody anyway.”
He added: “Paraic Duffy and I are as conservative and traditional as you will get in the GAA. We are looking at a package here that will satisfy the broad group of people that we are trying to satisfy.
“If we want to concentrate on the number of games that are going to go (from free-to-air), there are five extra games that are going to be televised this year.
"Compared to last year, they are only nine games, not 14, that will be exclusively with Sky. Some people are saying they think it's time the thing was shaken up and those people are going to be happy.
"Those that want to constantly refer to those that won't get to see those games will harp on and quite frankly you couldn't please everybody anyway and that's the nature of it.
“We took a chance on this and with open eyes, we knew we would get the criticism and the comments like that man has asked.
“We knew all that but somebody sometime had to grasp the nettle and see what Sky could bring to it.
"We've done that and we'll take the criticism but I'd be very surprised if they don't brighten it up and if people don't say at the end of the three year term that 'yeah that was worth trying'.”
