Monday Night Soccer

Monday Night Soccer (often abbreviated as MNS) was RTÉ's main football television programme. It was shown on RTÉ Two on Monday evenings during the Irish football season, showing highlights of recent matches in Irish football's top division, the League of Ireland Premier Division.

MNS was presented by RTÉ presenter Peter Collins, who was usually joined by two guests. Some of the guests to appear on the panel include League of Ireland XI manager Damien Richardson, and former Millwall striker Richard Sadlier.

The first edition of Monday Night Soccer was screened on RTÉ Two at 8 pm on 10 March 2008. It was hosted by Tony O'Donoghue. RTÉ won the rights to host a League of Ireland highlights show from TV3 as part of an updated rights deal with the FAI.

The show was broadcast at the earlier time of 7 pm (previously 8 pm), as opposed to the 11:30 pm Monday night slot occupied by its TV3 predecessor, eircom League Weekly, which was repeated Tuesdays at 5 pm.

Since the beginning, MNS has gained notability by being broadcast at an earlier time to its predecessor. Due to the broadcasting at an earlier time, Monday Night Soccer maintained a high rating.

Along with Monday Night Soccer, RTÉ also airs live games on the day of the match, usually on a Friday night on Airtricity League Live, and shares live rights with Setanta Sports.

In March 2014 the show was replaced by a new soccer show called Soccer Republic.^[1]

Show

The show is broadcast weekly on Monday evenings live from Rte Studio 6. Every League of Ireland Premier Division game is shown on the programme. In July and August editions of the show, it shows UEFA Champions League and Europa League matches, involving participating League of Ireland clubs. The first edition was broadcast on Monday 10 March 2008. In a television advertising campaign to promote the new programme, Tony O'Donoghue promised that the show would be on the team bus, in the dressing room and even on the field. Since then, Con Murphy has presented most of the shows. However, Con travelled with other RTÉ broadcasters to the Beijing Olympics in August 2008, and Tony O'Donoghue fills in when Con is unavailable.

Richard Sadlier, Roddy Collins, Damien Richardson and Eoin Hand are just a handful of guests who give their view on the League of Ireland. Tony O'Donoghue, John Kenny, Eamonn Donohoe and Stephen Alkin are the regular reporters bringing viewers highlights of the weekend's games. The show is also shown on the RTÉ website, live and can be watched up to 21 days after the original broadcast of the show.

The Irish Times reported in November 2008 that the programme's poor viewing figures made a move to a different time slot in 2009 a possibility, however this was not the case and the show returned to its regular time slot.^[2]

Roddy Collins left the sofa after he was appointed manager of Maltese club Floriana in June 2009. He returned in a number of months after being sacked as manager of Floriana.

League of Ireland licensing

TV3 owned the rights to a long-running weekly League of Ireland highlights programme until 2007. In 2008, a deal was struck between RTÉ and the Football Association of Ireland (FAI), which will end in 2013.^[3] As a part of the deal, RTÉ will broadcast MNS on a weekly basis and broadcast some of the matches live on a show called Airtricty League Live.

Presenters and commentators

Currently, Peter Collins presents alongside three pundits, who give their insights into the matches highlighted. The commentators are John Kenny and Tony O'Donoghue. For live matches, Peter Collins features as the main presenter. The show was previously presented by Con Murphy.

The following is a full list of panellists:

References

External links

• Official website
• Irish Times