Football but not on a Saturday afternoon
Friday, October 05, 2007
Saturday 3:00pm has traditionally been football time in the United Kingdom. But this weekend, of all the premier league fixtures only Aston Villa v West Ham is a that traditional time. Manchester United v Wigan is on Saturday lunchtime, and the other eight games are on Sunday.
Some have suggested that it is linked to the role of television but Richard Scudamore, disagrees:
“Out of the 10 matches only three have been displaced ostensibly for television … The remaining six have been moved due to participation in the Uefa Cup, transport issues and a combination of the police and Uefa.”
But, and I think he is right, Malcolm Clarke, chair of the Football Supporters’ Federation, made the key point that UEFA Cup participants only play on Sundays because they are scheduled on a Thursday to avoid clashes with televised Champions League games.
Are we losing out on a good tradition by not having most of our games on Saturday at 3:00pm, with results in at around 4:45pm? What do you think?
1 comments:
Phil Lewis
said...
October 06, 2007 8:57 am
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I miss everyone kicking off on a Saturday at three. It's annoying that when watching MOTD on a Saturday night, and they show the premiership table, not everyone has played so you need to have a degree in mathematics just to work out who might be where at the end of the weekend after all the Sunday and Monday games.
Whilst I agree premiership games are primarily changed because of mid-week fixtures, would it not be easier if ALL champions league matches were played on the same night? That would mean that all teams involved in midweek games would be able to play on the same day at the weekend, whereas at the moment you'd have Liverpool having a three day rest and Arsenal a four.