Sport in the United Kingdom sports combined have less than one-third the participation of football. Additionally, a British sport journalist pointed out that football academies are "really bad at letting players out of the system who aren't going to make it", frequently keeping players until age 17 or 18, beyond an age at which they can reasonably be developed for top-level basketball. Another issue is politically related. Basketball is not played in the elite fee-paying secondary schools that produce a disproportionate share of the UK's political leaders. Also, several British basketball insiders have cited problems with the sport's governance within the UK, with Kevin Routledge,
Sports broadcasting contracts in the Republic of Ireland Sports broadcasting contracts in the Republic of Ireland This article refers to sports broadcasting rights in the Republic of Ireland. For a list of sports broadcasting rights in other countries, see List of sports television broadcast contracts. Viewers in the Republic of Ireland can watch sports on Irish channels RTÉ One, RTÉ Two, Virgin Media One, Virgin Media Two, Virgin Media Three, Virgin Media Sport, TG4, eir Sport 1 and eir Sport 2. They can also view Pay-TV networks such as Sky Sports, BT Sport, Eurosport, Eleven Sports Network and ESPN. They can also access Northern Ireland's version of British