''Premier Soccer Saturday'' (formerly ''The Premiership'') was the principal weekly club

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

programme on

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...

television. In June 2013,

RTÉ Sport RTÉ Sport is a department of Irish public broadcaster RTÉ. The department provides sporting coverage through a number of platforms including RTÉ Radio, RTÉ Television, RTÉ.ie, RTÉ Player Sport and RTÉ Mobile. RTÉ holds the television ...

confirmed that due to cost-cutting initiatives to save the station up to €1.3m a year, it would no longer have the Irish rights to television coverage of the Premier League, with the 2012-13 Premier League season being the final season shown on

. The programme was broadcast on

RTÉ Two (RTÉ) (; Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the national broadcaster of Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, while ...

every Saturday evening between 19:30 and 21:00 and occasionally on Sunday (when there was an important game played that day) during the English league soccer season, showing highlights of

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

football matches. When the show was aired on a day other than Saturday, it used the appropriately customised title (e.g. ''Premier Soccer Sunday''). The programme only showed English association football, as ''

Monday Night Soccer ''Monday Night Soccer'' is a former football television programme shown on RTÉ Two each Monday evening during the football season. Presented by Peter Collins, he was usually joined by two guests, like manager Damien Richardson and former Mill ...

'' covered Irish association football.

History

The programme was first broadcast in September 1998 as ''The Premiership''. Between August 2004 and May 2007, 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 Sports Setanta Sports is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland broadcasting throughout select Eurasian. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events to international audiences. The company previo ...

obtained exclusive rights to the games from the 2007–08 season onwards. The show was reformatted or not broadcast on several occasions during the 2010 snowstorms in Great Britain and Ireland. For example, on Saturday 18 December 2010, the show's format was changed to show extended highlights of the only two Premiership games that were played. And, on Sunday 19 December 2010, a proposed Premier Soccer Soccer Sunday special was cancelled. One feature introduced to Premier Soccer Saturday involved fans providing match analysis. When this segment, nicknamed "fanalysts", was aired, the shows were extended to over 2 hours. On 30 April 2012, there was a special ''Premier Soccer Monday'' that showed highlights of the

Manchester Derby The Manchester derby refers to football matches between Manchester City and Manchester United, first contested in 1881. City play at the City of Manchester Stadium in Bradford, east Manchester, while United play at Old Trafford in the borough o ...

between the top two teams of that year's Premier League. Because the game, which was won by Man City, began at 19:45, the highlights show ran from 23:00 to 00:00. In May 2013,

Head of sport

Ryle Nugent Ryle Nugent was born in Dublin and is an Irish sports broadcaster, reporter and former Head of RTÉ Sport. Prior to his appointment, he was RTÉ's commissioning editor for sport primarily specialising in rugby union. He is the resident rugby uni ...

announced that RTÉ Sport would not pay for the

rights Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical the ...

of Premier League to show highlights. Therefore, Premier Soccer Saturday/Sunday was finished.

Presenters

The programme was most recently presented on a rotational basis between Peter Collins and

Darragh Maloney Darragh Maloney (born 05 December, 1972) is an Irish sports presenter, working on Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) radio and television. Maloney joined RTÉ in 1995 from local Dublin radio station, FM104 and was previously the studio host of ...

. Bill O'Herlihy was previously the sole presenter of the program.

Contributors

Pundits that sometimes featured on the show included

Eamon Dunphy Eamon Martin Dunphy (born 3 August 1945) is an Irish media personality, journalist, broadcaster, author, sports pundit and former professional association football, footballer. He grew up playing football for several youth teams including Stella ...

Johnny Giles Michael John Giles (born 6 November 1940) is an Irish former association football player and manager best remembered for his time as a midfielder with Leeds United in the 1960s and 1970s. After retiring from management in 1985, Giles served as t ...

Ray Houghton Raymond James Houghton (born 9 January 1962) is a former professional footballer and current sports analyst and commentator with RTÉ Sport. As a player, he was a midfielder, notably playing for Liverpool where he won two First Division titles ...

Trevor Steven Trevor McGregor Steven (born 21 September 1963) is an English former professional footballer who played as a right-sided midfielder. He progressed through the ranks at Burnley, making his debut in 1981 and becoming a regular supplier of goals o ...

Kenny Cunningham Kenneth Edward Cunningham (born 28 June 1971) is an Irish former footballer who played as a defender. He played international football for the Republic of Ireland until his retirement in 2005. He spent his professional club career, from 1989 t ...

Ronnie Whelan Ronald Andrew Whelan (; born 25 September 1961) is an Irish former professional footballer player who played as a midfielder and sometimes as a defender. He played an integral role in the dominant Liverpool side that won a wealth of titles in ...

Liam Brady William Brady (born 13 February 1956) is an Irish former footballer. He found success both in England with Arsenal, where he won an FA Cup in 1979, and in Italy with Juventus, winning two Serie A titles. Brady was capped 72 times for the Irelan ...

, Richard Sadlier and

Graeme Souness Graeme James Souness (; born 6 May 1953) is a Scottish former professional football player and manager, and current TV pundit. A midfielder, Souness was the captain of the successful Liverpool team of the early 1980s, player-manager of Ranger ...

. Former

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Bertie Ahern Bartholomew Patrick "Bertie" Ahern (born 12 September 1951) is an Irish former Fianna Fáil politician who served as Taoiseach from 1997 to 2008, Leader of Fianna Fáil from 1994 to 2008, Leader of the Opposition from 1994 to 1997, Tánaiste a ...

made an appearance on the show in 2001,Ahern: 'Don't blame the recession on me'
20 August 2008. providing analysis on a

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

game, of whom he is a lifelong supporter. Commentary on the match highlights and reports were provided by, amongst others, George Hamilton,

Ger Canning Ger Canning is an Irish sports commentator with Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). Career Ger Canning was born in Cork on 10 May 1951. He was a secondary school teacher at South Presentation school in Cork City when he began his broadcasting ca ...

Joanne Cantwell Joanne Cantwell (born 30 September 1979) is an Irish sports presenter. Personal life Cantwell was raised in Dublin, one of five daughters. She studied journalism at Dublin City University. Cantwell is married with two daughters and lives in O ...

, and

Jimmy Magee Jimmy Magee (31 January 1935 – 20 September 2017) was an Irish sports broadcaster, known as The Memory Man, he spent over half a century in sports broadcasting, and presented radio and television coverage of the Olympic Games since 1968 and the ...

References

{{Reflist 1990s Irish television series 2000s Irish television series Irish sports television series RTÉ Sport RTÉ original programming 1998 Irish television series debuts 2013 Irish television series endings Association football on Irish television Saturday events