Football for the Masses?

[Dessy]

The sell off of our national game continued at the weekend with Setanta showing England's game in Andorra exclusively and the same applies to Wednesday's big game against Croatia.

Much has been made of the changing face of football and in particular match day participation either through the turnstyles or in front of the TV.

For me, the national team's games should be made available to ALL through mainstream TV, i.e the Beeb, ITV, CH4, CH5 etc.

FFS.....its our national game. It used to be an occassion, a diary event when England (and I'm sure its the same for Scotland, Wales and ROI) were playing. We could at least all sit in front of the TV, the kids (and even the missus who normally hates football with a passion!) and cheer the boys on.

What ****in right have the powers that be (The FA) got to sell off our national game. They should all be ****in hung, drawn and quartered.......I'll now have to go to the pub again!!

[S-RED]

Whilst i understand the financial aspect of why the FA have sold their soul to SKY/Setanta, even though i am totaly against it & agree that games should be free for all.
What i don't understand is that the Beeb or ITV are not even allowed to show highlights later that evening. That is very wrong.

[-V-]

I totally agree. We are being ripped off left right and centre

I refuse to buy setanta. I already pay a huge amount of money to Sky Sports. Then they put the boxing on Sky box office and charge £15 and put football on setanta for a further £13 a month (and rising)

Its a disgrace. We are supposed to benefit from extra choices yet in reality we are paying for setanta to show us action that we would have already seen for free elsewhere before they bought the 'rights'

[Certacito]

I might be wrong but don't they have to show the England games on main stream tv when they are at home? Probably different for away games. I know Setanta refused to let BBC or ITV show the highlights so you can only assume they think more people will subscribe. Sorry Sultana but this is one guy who won't be blackmailed. It's only England anyway and the game was crap wasn't it?

[Exiled_red]

I don't really care about the England games, what frustrates me about this is that the whole different grouping of games for TV rights which was brought in to break sky's monopoly means that fans have to subscribe to BOTH setanta and sky if you want to watch televised games which ends up costing more

[Dessy]

I might be wrong but don't they have to show the England games on main stream tv when they are at home? Probably different for away games. I know Setanta refused to let BBC or ITV show the highlights so you can only assume they think more people will subscribe. Sorry Sultana but this is one guy who won't be blackmailed. It's only England anyway and the game was crap wasn't it?

Setanta's price for highlights package was such that terrestrial's wouldn't pay up....all designed to keep people subscribing as you say.

I don't really care about the England games, what frustrates me about this is that the whole different grouping of games for TV rights which was brought in to break sky's monopoly means that fans have to subscribe to BOTH setanta and sky if you want to watch televised games which ends up costing more

Sorry guys but I do care about our national team and more imporantly think that we should be able to watch ALL of our games without having to subscribe elsewhere.

Are we the only ones this applies to? Do the Argentinians, Australians, Germans, Italians etc have to pay extra?

[Meols Kopite]

Are we the only ones this applies to? Do the Argentinians, Australians, Germans, Italians etc have to pay extra?

On Wednesday:

Germanys game is on one of their free national broadcasters ZDF
Hollands is on RTL 4 which I think is a pay channel on satellite and cable
Italys is on RAI which is free
France game is on TF1 which is free
Spain are on TVE 1 which is free on the main Spanish TV channel, sort of their BBC1.
Portugal are on their national broadcaster for free as well.

The second half of Englands game is on the german channel ZDF after the Germany game. So people in Germany can watch England for free on their equivalent of BBC2. The match on Saturday was free in HD on a German channel through satellite as well.

[Dessy]

On Wednesday:

Germanys game is on one of there national broadcasters ZDF
Hollands is on RTL 4 which I think is a pay channel on satellite and cable
Italys is on RAI which is free
France game is on TF1 which is free
Spain are on TVE 1 which is the main Spanish TV channel, sort of their BBC1.
Portugal are on their national broadcaster for free as well.

The second half of Englands game is on the german channel ZDF after the Germany game. So people in Germany can watch England for free on their equivalent of BBC2. The match on Saturday was free in HD on a German channel through satellite as well.

Figures......

[Shaggy]

What is the difference between Setanta and Sky showing the game?

[Harv]

What is the difference between Setanta and Sky showing the game?

Setanta's picture quality is ****ing terrible down here.

[Shaggy]

But there's no difference. The original post complains about the national game being sold off - this happened years ago. Sky, Setanta...what's the difference? Sky subscribers are getting upset just because it's not on Sky. Let's face it, that's what the complaints are about. All those Ingerlund fans who chanted 'we hate Setanta'....you can bet your bottom dollar that 99% of 'em have got Sky.

[Harv]

TBH i didnt read the post....

I have no idea what this thread is about

You're just lucky i didnt call you a cunt

[Shaggy]

[Pablo]

I think the very fact they are on Setanta shows how little interest there is in International Football these days. Sky didnt even bother out bidding them. Most of the lads in my office either didnt watch it at all, or left the pub/switched it off early.

[Shaggy]

I only watched it cos the tennis was rained off and I'd taped the game to watch after. It was so dull. Again. Who cares about England?

I think Euro 2008 showed how wonderful international football can be; it certainly restored my faith in it. Top international tournament football is fantastic; it only gets dull when England are involved.