The Mighty Quinn with a mighty idea.
People love football.
All over the world.
Many times, they are so happy to watch a decent game that they’ll tune in at 2pm or 3am.
That, in the shell of a nut, is the central plank of Niall Quinn’s vision to pump some life, glitz and money back into Irish football, and the SSE Airtricity League.
The former Ireland international was on 2FM’s Game On, on Monday, to discuss his vision to revamp a league that is currently struggling to stay afloat.
Gone are the days when Irish club sides tussled with elite in the European Cup and had fully professional set-ups. The current prize for the league winners is €100,000.
Quinn has cited the success of cricketing authorities, in the Caribbean, of selling international rights to their games to a host of interested broadcasters, no matter how far flung. He commented:
‘I would love to see a revamp of the League of Ireland on the basis that money can be made externally.
‘There are emerging countries around the world and their TV companies are desperate for content.
‘Now I know I can watch football from Chile and Honduras at 2am and 3am and that’s money that is making its way from TV companies back into football in those countries.’
Quinn added, ‘Cricket was dead, people went in – they changed it all around, they revamped it, they styled it, and now they’ve sold it to over 50 countries around the world.’
The former Sunderland chairman also pointed to America’s MLS as a league revamp that has proved successful. ‘That was dead on its feet [but now there’s] a central running of it that makes everything work – it’s sexy now, for want of a better word.’
So there you have it, Bohemians on TV in Burkina Faso, Derry City on the box in Dunedin and Sligo showing a Bit O’Red in Singapore.
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