- Monday Night Soccer
-
Monday Night Soccer 
MNS LogoFormat Sports highlights Presented by Con Murphy
main presenter
Tony O'Donoghue
part-time presenterOpening theme Is It Any Wonder? by Keane Country of origin Ireland Production Running time 60 minutes Broadcast Original channel RTÉ Two Original run 10 March 2008 – present Chronology Related shows Eircom League Weekly External links Website Monday Night Soccer (often abbreviated as MNS) is the RTÉ's main football television programme. It is shown on RTÉ Two on Monday evenings during the Irish football season, showing highlights of the day's matches in Irish football's top division, the League of Ireland Premier Division. The show has gained notability by being broadcast at the earlier time of 7 pm (previously 8 pm), as opposed to the graveyard slot occupied by its TV3 predecessor, eircom League Weekly.
MNS is presented by RTÉ presenter Con Murphy, who is usually joined by 2 guests. Some of the guests to appear on the panel include League of Ireland XI manager, Damien Richardson, former manager of Floriana F.C., Roddy Collins 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 after TV3 decided to drop the programme due to poor ratings. Since the beginning, MNS has gained notability by being broadcast at a earlier time to its predecessor. Due to the broadcasting at a earlier time, Monday Night Soccer has maintained a high rating.
Along with Monday Night Soccer, RTÉ also show live games on the day of the match, usually Friday. This show is called Airtricity Premier Live.
Monday Night Soccer is not universally welcomed in the football world. Some fans consider the program to be lackluster and features very few popular Irish soccer players. But, some have praised the show, saying it has highlighted the matches in detail and has provided good coverage for the League of Ireland.
Contents
Show
The show is broadcast weekly on Monday evenings. 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[disambiguation needed
], 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.[1]
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 weekly League of Ireland highlight programme until 2007. In 2008, a deal was struck between RTÉ and FAI, which will end in 2013.[2] As apart of the deal, RTÉ will broadcast MNS on a weekly basis and broadcast some of the matches live on a show called Airtricty Live.
Presenters and commentators
Currently, Con Murphy presents along side 3 pundits, who give there 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 following is a full list of panellists:
Name Notes Damien Richardson Manager of League of Ireland XI Eoin Hand Former Portsmouth Defender Roddy Collins Former Manager of Floriana Richard Sadlier Former Millwall Striker Dave Barry Winner of 1 League of Ireland Title Colm Foley Former St. Patrick's Athletic Defender Pat Morley 1990/91 PFAI Player of the Year Tony McDonnell Former UCD Midfielder Sean Prunty Winner of 2 FAI Cup Titles Paul McGee Former manager of Republic of Ireland football team Paul Doolin 2 time SWAI Personality of the Year External links
References
- ^ EMMET MALONE (2008-06-28). "'Monday Night Soccer' may be moved from prime-time slot". The Irish Times. http://74.125.77.132/search?q=cache:zq5RI9Lh0CsJ:www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2008/1125/1227486546934.html+Monday+Night+Soccer+(MNS)&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=ie. Retrieved 2008-09-20.
- ^ Emmet Malone (2008-11-25). "'Monday Night Soccer' may be moved from prime-time slot". The Irish Times. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2008/1125/1227486546934.html. Retrieved 2009-10-29.
Categories:- RTÉ television programmes
- Irish sport television programmes
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
