I would love to see the Europa League turn into an all-knockout competition a la FA Cup (except with 2 legged matches). After a few short qualifying rounds, how exciting would it be to see 128 clubs be drawn WITH NO SEEDING! The luck of the draw would inevitably see minnows rise to late stages as well as intriguing ties throughout 6 rounds before the final. Will it ever happen? Absolutely NOT. Too much money involved in the Group Stages but how dumb are UEFA to structure a competition in exact same fashion as the CL which only highlights its shortcomings. This thread is my official note to Mssr. Platini to make the EL something other than what it is now....a second rate competition that very few care about. SA www.soccertvblog.com
Yes and Juventus is what almost 2o years ago? This post is real rich coming from a Juventus supporter. Anyways, back to BeIn. Uverse news? Cantona said the deal is done, but there is nothing; yet confirmation that Comcast deal will soon be announced.
Is a two horse race because right now both teams have the best two players on planet earth, with a great supporting cast. But the other two four teams, will be able to go head to head with some of the best teams in Europe.
Interesting.... Bein Sport has acquired rights to the National Football League (NFL) in France. The Qatari-owned channel, formerly known as Al Jazeera, will broadcast four games live per week, on Thursdays, Sundays and Mondays. The package of rights includes the Super Bowl, scheduled for February 3rd 2013 in New Orleans. The Super Bowl rights, however, are not exclusive as French broadcaster W9 recently extended its own deal to cover the league's season finale. The first game to be broadcast by Bein Sport will be the New York Giants, the defending champions, against the Dallas Cowboys on September 6th. (courtesy SportsPro Media)
Right now? Since 1985 La Liga has been won by 5 different teams, of the 5, three won it 4 times, 23 times it was won by Barca or Real. So in the past 27 years three other teams have won La Liga a total of four times. I'd say it's been a two horse race for a while now. Anyways, this is the last I'm talking about it. It's going too far off topic. Back to topic... how about that streaming service?
I know people won't agree but I hate having Barca and Real Madrid on Live every single week when there's other games that can be live. I mean I get it. Those are the most popular. They are going to get the most coverage and that's fine. I guess just being a soccer fan (and not a barca/real madrid fan) i'd rather see competitive games vs watching barca hammer someone 5-1. Just my opinion tho.
I have a feeling Atleti will beat Chelsea in the UEFA Super Cup just like they did to Inter a couple years ago.
It's great that we all have different tastes. I enjoy La Liga because I appreciate the technical quality of it and also because I understand that Real plays Barca every single week, directly or indirectly... However, if the only criteria for entertainment is competitiveness then I don't understand why any American would be following ANY European league. The Mickey Mouse league we have in the USA also known as the MLS is more competitive than ANYTHING Europe has to offer. Here, any team can beat any team, and any team can end up being the champion. It doesn't get more "competitive" than that. Granted, any kindergarten league would have the same properties and about the same quality. So you could even save your cable payments and just watch five-year-olds and satisfy your taste.
I guess it's not even about competitiveness but rather variety. Last season, you had 9 Live La Liga games a week between ESPN3, GOL TV and DTV. You also had 4-5 Serie A games on FSC and FS+ (also RAI for those with Dish). The problem is the fact that they only have one channel. What's going to happen if they do get EPL rights? There's only so much you can put on a channel lol. I just think anytime you show less, your taking a step backwards. I don't really blame beIN for this. They are a new channel, they wanted to buy all the rights for these leagues so that providers would pick them up. But at some point your going to have to see a beINsports USA 2 or provide the overflow games via stream.
Real Madrid and Barcelona vs any "crappy" team sells more than any italian club classic will ever do.. Just deal with it..
Like I said, I understand it, just not thrilled about it. Not when you were getting both last season.
See, I can understand the variety argument a little bit better. You point is valid, and my guess is that BEIN will do two things (Warning: contrary to some here who claim to be insiders and have been exposed to know very little in this whole BEIN saga, I don't claim to have inside information. I just making an educated guess that so far has been validated more than the "so-called-experts" here.) I think they will do plenty of streaming as you say, AND they will end up buying GOLTV to use it for the EPL (if they get those rights). That's my guess.
I don't have any insider info either but I always thought from day one they would buy GOLTV. I hope so anyways lol. IMO the more games on TV, the better for everyone
GolTV has been removed from Uverse soccer package. I don't know what is going on but it better be because BeIn sports has finally been added. So because both teams are dominant the league isn't as good? You have a very peculiar way of reasoning. Instead of praising these teams ability and dominance you discredit them by saying their opposition was weaker without any proof it actually is. How is that any different from me saying Madrid and Barca would dominate Serie A with an even bigger point total just looking at how poor the league has represented themselves as of late? If they do the losers will only discredit the victory and say "well we didn't care about it anyways!". Seems to be an effective tactic these clubs use now days.
To the best of my knowledge this is the status of the dealings between Comcast and BEIN: http://www.multichannel.com/article/488795-BeIN_Sport_Nearing_Comcast_Carriage_Pact_Sources.php
That is what you've implied when discussing the history of who has won, then highlighting the fact there are two dominating teams. The rest of those teams have a lot of quality and have shown that. It is just that both Madrid and barcelona are that much better than anyone and would be dominant like that in any league.
Comcast may have struck a deal with BeIN, but that doesn't mean that everyone will see it at the same time. Comcast rolls things out to areas that they choose first, and no one knows when it will be delivered to them until it shows up on their bill. What you get in Philly, you may not see in Pittsburgh for 6 months. Comcast is fickle like that.
Fine. But, once we are inside the head of the octopus it's easier to make each tentacle do what you want. It's fair to celebrate a BIG, although PARTIAL victory. We are not done.
Tell that to the Comcast subscribers who STILL don't have FSC in HD, and are STILL waiting for it based on Comcast's promises.
Two years and counting waiting for FSC HD in Chicago. This is a city with more than 1 million mexicans and 1 million polish people. This is a big soccer town and we still don't have the channel. I'm interested to see how the rollover for beIN will be planned because if they use the same logic as the one used for FSC HD then we will be watching La Liga in our computers for a looooong time!
I have a feeling that BeIN will be offered on some sports and entertainment package, like FSC is, and in stunning standard definition, like most other channels on their S&E package. Still, it's better than nothing, I suppose.