Belated Happy New Year to you all. 2012 is upon us and sadly, I already have to whine about something. I was enjoying my wonderful Christmas break and should have been in a happy festive mood. Yet, my mood quickly turned sour. The Old Firm was being played but low and behold, not one TV station was carrying it live in the US. Not FSC. Not GolTV and not ESPN. What gives? As if that wasn’t enough for me to be upset, I grew more bitter when I realized that yet another edition of the Africa Cup of Nations will also not be aired on any of those stations. With all these extra outlets for football coverage, why is it that we always seem to miss out on football action?
I could waste your time listing what all these channels have the rights to and what they show on the TV and what they stream online. The big issue is that we should have all these games on TV. Of course, I don’t mean on the big three networks. Let’s face it, we all know that they don’t care about the sport that much. So we are left with cable TV which usually means buying the sports package channels. However, not all the leagues are played. This of course brings me back to the Old Firm game that I mentioned above. When I discovered that there was going to be a midweek Old Firm match, I quickly checked to see what channel would be showing it.
Low and behold, not one of the big three soccer channels were showing it. What gives? One of the most important rivalries in the world and it’s not on TV. I don’t know who shows the Scottish League and it seems like no one does. This is a pity since Celtic and Rangers have a lot of fans in this country and you would expect this game to at least be aired for the masses. This quickly made me look into who owned the rights for the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations and my Old Firm disappointment was compounded by additional misery. There is no free TV coverage for the African Cup of Nations whatsoever.
I remember the first time watching the African Cup of Nations back in 1994. I was in Lebanon enjoying an entertaining tournament that made become a fan of Nigeria’s national team for future African Cup of Nations. It become harder to watch when I moved to the States soon afterwards since no one showed it in America. I didn’t get to watch another edition till next decade when I discovered that the Arabic package on Dish Network. They were showing the competition and I got to watch it a few more times.
Sadly, we are into the new days of 2012 and still face the same dilemma. No coverage of African Cup of Nations in America. We also don’t have coverage of other big games from other leagues. No Old Firm. No PSG against Olympique Marseilles. No Ajax v PSV. I know ESPN 3 streams some of these games but that’s the problem; we get these games online free or through other means that is not approved by the league and TV big wigs.
I am not asking for every league game from every league to be played. No, far from it. But I would like for the big games of the big leagues to be played on TV. I sure would wake up early to see a clash between Ajax against Feyenoord or the Old Firm or Olympiakos against Panathinaikos over an early kickoff of Sunderland hosting Bolton or at least show games featuring one of the top teams of the league too. The leagues and the sports networks need to sort something out because I can watch all those games online for free by other means. I am not the one losing out; they are.
Sure watching the games online is not the same as watching it on your big TV screen but when they are not even on the TV screen, you have no other choice. That’s why things need to change. When you can watch games online for free, then what incentive do you have to order those channels later on via cable or paid online channel service? Hopefully things change in the near future because I am tired of being stuck in the 90’s when it comes to coverage of football in America.
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