RTÉ Television today announced details of its World Cup coverage, taking in 56 games live, as part of an astounding 152 hours of live football over 25 days from the tournament in Germany.
At a photocall this afternoon, former Scotland and Liverpool legend Graeme Souness, as well as former Republic of Ireland captain Kenny Cunningham, were introduced as part of RTÉ’s unrivalled team of soccer panellists for the World Cup.
Graeme and Kenny will join regulars John Giles, Eamon Dunphy, Liam Brady, Ray Houghton and Trevor Steven plus Denis Irwin and veteran of Ireland's 2002 campaign Mark Kinsella.
In a novel addition to the coverage, Dublin-born Premiership referee Dermot Gallagher will be keeping close watch on the men in the middle for RTÉ viewers for the duration of the tournament.
As ever, Bill O’Herlihy will anchor proceedings along with Peter Collins and Con Murphy, while George Hamilton, Darragh Maloney, Stephen Alkin and Ger Canning will join the legendary Jimmy Magee, who will be commentating on his 11th World Cup, as they provide commentary from Germany.
As well as informative and unrivalled coverage of every game, the Après Match team will be along to provide their unique insight into the World Cup.
Also announced today were details of a new addition to RTÉ’s World Cup coverage for this year. 'Gatecrasher' will see sports broadcaster Ger Gilroy touring around Germany in a camper van, giving viewers an alternative look at the sights and sounds of the greatest show on earth.
Gilroy and his team will cover more than 7106km as they visit all 12 World Cup cities to take a look at how the tournament is being celebrated outside the stadiums.
As well as over 150 hours of live World Cup football, RTÉ viewers can look forward to a huge range of quality free-to-air sports broadcasting this summer.
The summer schedule launches with two fantastic European finals this week.
Arsenal take on Barcelona in the Champions League live on Wednesday night, while on Saturday Munster go in search of their holy grail as they face Biarritz in the Heineken Cup Final live from Cardiff.
Glen Killane, RTÉ Head of TV Sport, said: 'RTÉ is committed to making the best possible sporting events both national and international, available to the widest possible audience free-to-air. This is borne out by the wide range of quality sport that can be seen this summer on RTÉ.'
