- Premier Soccer Saturday
"This article is about the Irish TV series. For the British programme, see
The Premiership (TV series) .""Premier Soccer Saturday" (formerly "The Premiership") is RTÉ's principal
soccer programme. It is broadcast onRTÉ Two every Saturday evening between 19:30 and 21:00 and occasionally on Sunday (when there is an important game played that day) during the soccer season, showing highlights of English Premier League football matches. The current theme tune for the show is a cover of theRepublica song, "Bloke".History
It was first broadcast in September 1998 as The Premiership. Between August
2004 and May2007 ,RTÉ also had the broadcasting rights to 15 live Premier League matches on Saturday afternoons (kick off: 15:00). These programmes were called "Premiership Live".Setanta obtained exclusive rights to the games from the 07-08 season.Presenters
It is currently presented on a rotational basis between
Bill O'Herlihy , Peter Collins and Darragh Maloney. O'Herlihy used to be the sole presenter of the program but from the 06-07 season, decided to scale back his workload in light of his advancing years,Fact|date=August 2008 although he still presents the Champions League and International match coverage for the station.Analysts
Regular pundits that feature on the show to make insightful comments about the games, include
Eamon Dunphy ,Johnny Giles ,Liam Brady ,Ray Houghton ,Trevor Steven ,Kenny Cunningham ,Ronnie Whelan andGraeme Souness . The IrishTaoiseach ,Bertie Ahern famously made an appearance on the show in 2001, providing analysis on a Manchester United game, whom he is a life long supporter of.Commentators
Commentary on the games are provided by, amongst others,
George Hamilton , Stephen Alkin, Darragh Maloney,Ger Canning , Adrian Eames, Andrew O'Connor, Gabriel Egan, Joanne Cantwell, Siobhán Madigan andJimmy Magee .
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