After Sky TV were originally looking at potentially scheduling Premier League games on Christmas Eve, the fact that they have now backtracked will be welcomed by most match-going supporters.
Earlier this month rumours surfaced that broadcasters were seeking to show a live Premier League game on Christmas Eve. With the Arsenal vs Liverpool fixture on Saturday December 23rd, the obvious target.
Supporter organisations across the country, led by the Football Supporters Federation (FSF), lobbied against the idea, due to the lack of consideration to the travel issues and inconvenience it could create supporters over the Christmas period.
Last week in a meeting with supporter representatives, Premier League executive chairman Richard Scudamore said that no 4pm kick-offs would be allowed on Christmas Eve, but that other broadcast slots were still being considered.
Scudamore added that “the process of selecting games for live broadcast has been a more complex one than usual” with Christmas Eve falling on Sunday this year, which presented a dilemma for Sky.
Now the recently announced broadcast schedule for December contains no Christmas Eve kick-offs, to which the Football Supporters’ Federation commented: “Fans will be relieved to see that broadcasters and the Premier League have backed away from the idea of a Christmas Eve fixture.
“It was never popular with match-going fans and we’re happy to say they have listened – more of the same in future please!
“Top-flight clubs receive billions from broadcasters and more of that revenue should be used to help fans with travel when games are rescheduled for TV.”
UTV
