SKY Shine With Champions League Coverage

Sorry for my brief silence.  I’ve been doing other things and to be honest I’ve also been struggling to think of anything to write about that’s not related to Darren Sutherland.  It’s really knocked the boxing community here in Ireland for six.

I guess the biggest story on a wider sporting scale this week is the return of the Champions League.  This year, more than ever with so many debutants, the group stages don’t seem overly appealing – I always feel that it is a competition that doesn’t truly get underway until the knockout stages.  Clashes such as Liverpool v Debrecen and FC Zurich v Real Madrid are unlikely to inspire anyone bar the most die-hard of fans, or at the very least the fans of the underdog.

I am, as I’ve no doubt mentioned on here before, a fan of Manchester United so I tuned in to a fair chunk of their game against Besiktas in Turkey last night.  TV3 have the rights back here in Ireland so, naturally, I watched it on SKY.  I was glad I did.

Their coverage is immense.  Now, the punditry was meh – Michel Salgado’s English made him a puzzling choice for the studio panel – and I am a fan of Martin Tyler and Andy Grey.  What I really enjoyed last night, however, was the technical elements of what I was watching.  I accept, now, that this may be old news to many of you reading but since I’ve literally never been at home on a Champions League evening in recent years, it was my first time watching all eight Champions League games at once.

To give you a brief overview of how the system works, when you press the eponymous red button you are presented with a choice of eight games (on a Tuesday that is.  ITV have first choice on Wednesday evenings from this season meaning there will be seven games to choose from tonight).  Naturally, I picked the United game but when there was a goal, a little banner flashed across the screen.  I press that little red button again and, lo and behold, I’m watching Guti score in Switzerland or Inzaghi poaching one against Marseille or whatever – it really is a stunning service.

Now what SKY are doing is not revolutionary – I know of at least one other provider in the States that does something similar on an NFL Sunday, while the BBC have been giving viewers the opportunity to choose between sports at the Olympics or matches at Wimbledon for a few years now.  Yet, I enjoyed last night and again tonight, though the service was marred by the aforementioned absence of one game, in this case Liverpool v Debrecen.

In a world (and a blog) where we sports fans love to give out about all sorts, I’m going to take this rare opportunity to tip my hat in the general direction of SKY and say thanks for the entertainment.  Now if only the same levels of commitment could be shown to other sports...

Media Watch - Real Comes To Dublin

If more has been written about a game of soccer involving a League of Ireland club, then I for one can’t remember it. When did we last see an event that got such press attention? When Shels came so close to the Champions League group stages? When Rovers left Milltown? When J.R. was shot in Dallas?

The talk about the game was dominated by the debut of a wonderkid named Cristiano, but there was to be no waltzing through the Rovers’ defence for the Portu-geezer. Instead ‘the other Ronaldo’ was given a welcome ‘not all...fitting the 'friendly' title of this match’ or so said RTE.ie’s match report. The boo boys were out in force, as anyone with even a cursory notice of Tuesday morning’s papers would have noticed, but is that as big a deal as some claimed? Were those who booed the most expensive Galactico rude and disgraceful or were they merely doing all they could to intimidate the opposition? I’ll leave you to answer that one.



Such an event, of course, drew attention from beyond our little isle as hacks galore descended on North Dublin to report on the debut of the most expensive football side ever assembled (computer games, obviously, not included). Real Madrid TV (available on SKY) reported on their preparations for the game, the preparations which (we were told) took place in Carlton House in ‘May-Nooth.’ The reporter in question obviously hadn’t rambled into the Kildare town for a wander as she struggled with a relatively simple pronunciation.

Still, bad as she was, the reporter in question deserves a Pulitzer when compared to a hack from the normally exemplary Guardian newspaper. Daniel Taylor (who deserves this naming and shaming) filed a report which was as inaccurate as a drunken surgeon. Tallaght Stadium, he told his readers, was a ‘modest little ground...with a half-built shiny block that, on first glance, appeared to be made out of Lego.’ He then went on to call Pat Flynn ‘Shamrock’s obligatory hard man.’ Shamrock, he obviously surmised, was now an actual place! Lovely, just lovely.

Though such blatant mistakes are to be expected from foreign journo’s, at least things are different here in Ireland where our domestic press supports the League, right? Wrong. Those who tuned into RTE to watch the Tallghticos on Monday were instead treated to Monday Night Soccer. All well and good, but not being able to see the game on RTE was undoubtedly an underwhelming experience to those in non-SKY land. Probably a similar feeling to that of a Madrid fan who had vested too many hopes in Cristiano.

Instead of the Real match, RTE showed highlights of Rovers’ game against Sligo (also known as The Return To Tolka) as part of MNS. Therefore, there was no Benzama or Van Nistelrooy of Madrid, but Boco and Rafter of Sligo. And who was Sligo’s answer to Cristiano? Goalscorer Shaun Holmes perhaps? No, wait, he did something of use...

But hey, at least we only missed a friendly. At least RTE or our other terrestrial broadcasters will show us the exploits of Bohemians and co. in Europe this week, yes? Ah...no. Off to the streaming sites I go.

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This was originally written for the League of Ireland website, Extra Time.

Cristiano Ronal-Go!

I'll have more on this later on, but for now here's two quick points on Ronaldo's move to Real Madrid.

It's a good deal for United. Ronaldo wants out, has done for some time, and though there was little evidence of this on the pitch this year, that would have come in time. Rumour has it that this deal has been done for some time and that wouldn't surprise me - keeping him for one more year after the shenanigans of last summer is good going.

Secondly, while I'm not going to point out the lunacy of spending so much on players, Real Madrid have now spent about €138m on two players this week. Either Perez is the President they needed all along or we're in for another failure, a Galacticos Mk II if you will. Time will tell. I can't wait to see.