Sky's Ryder Cup Deal Saved

BSkyB's exclusive UK and Ireland deal to screen live coverage of this year's Ryder Cup golf championship has been salvaged after the Irish government lifted its threat to throw the satellite broadcaster's contract into the bunker.

After a three month review of the "crown jewels" of Ireland's sporting events, the government today announced that it was not, after all, going to demand that the Ryder Cup, which will this year be staged in Ireland, be screened on a free-to-air channel.

The government's decision has come as a major relief to BSkyB, which was threatening to go to court if the decision had gone the other way.

A BSkyB spokesman said it had "no comment" to make, but executives both in Dublin and London fought a tough battle to persuade the Irish government that it would be folly to unpick the Ryder Cup deal. Sky Sports has had exclusive live coverage of the event in the UK and Ireland since 1997.

The decision ends the spell of uncertainty started when the taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, intervened and stated publicly he wanted the Ryder Cup to be seen by everyone in Ireland, pointing out it was on free-to-air TV in the US.

Today Noel Dempsey, the Irish communications minister, said: "The government was mindful of the fact that it was decided not to designate it [the Ryder Cup] as 'free-to-air' at the time of the first designation of events in 2003.

"This would have created a reasonable expectation that it would remain outside of the remit of 'free-to-air' for 2006."

The PGA European Tour, which is organising the Ryder Cup event at Ireland's K Club in September, was furious with the Irish government's late intervention when the review of events was announced in December.

Barely concealing his anger, George O'Grady, the chief executive of the PGA European Tour, warned the Irish government that forcing the organisers to undo their deal with BSkyB would spell disaster for Ireland's image in the sporting world.

"Any retrospective action would be immensely damaging to the European tour, not only in the financial implications of breaking our contract with Sky and the effect on the other tournaments they cover, both in Ireland and internationally, but also to our reputation and that of the Ryder Cup and the tour's ability to enter into future contracts where our trademark, won over all the years of our existence, stands for fail dealing, confidence and trust," Mr O'Grady said in a written submission to the government.

Sources said they believed the cabinet was split on the issue and that the finance minister, Brian Cowen, persuaded his wavering colleagues that unpicking the deal would damage Ireland's reputation as a business-friendly country.

In 2003, the government torpedoed a 17.5m euro (£12.1m) deal between the Football Association of Ireland and BSkyB to screen Irish international games.