Ryle Nugent, Group head of Sport, RTÉ and former Irish international and current RTÉ soccer panellist, Damien Duff.

Ryle Nugent, Group head of Sport, RTÉ and former Irish international and current RTÉ soccer panellist, Damien Duff.

IRELAND’S QUALIFIERS FOR Euro 2020 and World Cup 2022 will be broadcast exclusively on RTÉ.

The decision was announced today and will cover the Irish team’s European qualifiers, home and away, for both international tournaments.

The announcement ensures free-to-air coverage for the games while the broadcaster has also secured the exclusive rights for the Euro 2020 finals.

That tournament will have a novel hosting arrangement as it is staged across Europe for the first time with Dublin one of 13 host cities along with Amsterdam, Baku, Bilbao, Bucharest, Budapest, Brussels, Copenhagen, London, Munich, Glasgow, Rome and St Petersburg.

Four games will be held at the Aviva Stadium while the semi-finals and final are held at Wembley.

RTÉ had already secured rights for Ireland’s remaining 2018 World Cup qualifiers and the coverage of next summer’s finals in Russia, along with the broadcast rights for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

The aggreement covers RTÉ’s broadcast rights across television, radion, online and mobile platforms.

“Today’s announcements ensure that all Republic of Ireland European Qualifiers, both home and away, for the Fifa World Cup 2018, the UEFA Euro 2020 finals and the Fifa World Cup 2022 will be available, free to air, for Irish audiences on RTÉ,” said Ryle Nugent, Group Head of Sport RTÉ.

“In addition, the three Finals tournaments themselves, which always provide some of the biggest and most iconic moments in sport, will be available to the Irish public.

“At a time of significant and increased competition in the market place to secure these rights on all platforms is a very positive step”

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