Watching Saturday night football in Australia in the late hours is a lonely and thankless chore. Someone has to do it though. That football isn’t going to watch itself.
Before going any further and causing argument, when we talk Saturday night football in Australia we’re talking about soccer. And 10pm onwards.
That thankless chore has got a lot harder and more expensive since Fox Sports fell asleep and allowed Optus to steal the EPL rights for three years.
Not for The Gurgler, as the introduction of BeIn Sports and their three insomnia inducing goodness now produces multiple Football League games, plus just about every game from every country, except EPL.
It’s a recipe for zero sleep and reducing sports betting account balances for a Sports Nerd. It’s all good too.
But there’s still something missing, a tiny longing to have the EPL too.
Sure, we can fill our wee hours with BBC Sport Live Scores updates, Football Weekly podcasts, plus countless other podcasts, and Twitter updates on every Football League club. And we will.
Or the obvious answer is if we really want the EPL to sign up to Optus like everyone else. Two problems – don’t need a new phone or plan. Secondly, with all the goodness on BeIn Sports we don’t need that much EPL. Not every second of every game, who got time for that. Just a little taste. The special club based channels and lunchtime replays are great, but still not live.
We have the answer to ours, and it is a simple one for Fox Sports.
Given that outside of the winter football in Australia the line up on Fox Sports is a little thin, with the tail end of motor racing and A League being the flagships, there’s plenty of room to fill. That gap late on a Saturday could be filled with something perfect for Saturday Night Football in Australia.
The answer is broadcasting Soccer Saturday.
Soccer Saturday is a 5 hour behemoth of pure Football Joy. A Saturday afternoon institution in the UK. The main part is a panel of four former players at a desk watching the Games of the Day and then relaying what they see. All with the excitement of them being there for you to pretend you’re there. Plus they have reporters at every ground in England and Scotland to relay all the goals going in. On a good day they can barely keep up.
Sounds stupid, or boring? Not a chance. Those that do describe it like that either have never seen, or aren’t the footballing nerd they claim they are. You only have to go to You Tube and check out some of Chris Kamara’s work, or the annual funnies to see what you are missing.
It is great for those desperados who have and follow live multiple multis in all of the four English football divisions.
Lord knows there’s probably some legal reason Fox Sports can’t show it, but if they aren’t actually broadcasting the games then what’s the harm. And the fact that Soccer Saturday is from Fox Sports’ richer cousin in Sky Sports UK, there should be no problem with sharing.
It is pure gold for Saturday night football in Australia, and you’d have every betting company across Australia fighting each other for the naming sponsor rights to promote their new multi app etc.
So we throw down the challenge to Fox Sports to make our late evening of watching Saturday night football in Australia the perfect night in.
We won’t be losing (any more) sleep over it though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvshViydrus
