When I was a kid in 1994 I read a book called Twenty-Two Foreigners in Funny Shorts. It was written as a tongue-in-cheek primer for Americans who were about to host the World Cup. The author talked about how he liked to watch Serie A on Sunday mornings because it was the best league in the world. I was wondering when the Premeir League went to Sunday made for tv games (or maybe the old First Division had them?)
The Premier League was formed in 1992 to take advantage of an offer from BSkyB to move one match each week to Sundays at 1600 London Time so that the match can be shown on TV in the U.K. The Monday night matches were added in the 1994-1995 season.
Thanks for the info huhe. I guess the purists were really up in arms about the Premier League and moving games from Saturday afternoons back then.
The BBC and ITV did have season with limited game packages from the old First Division, but I'm not sure if those were Saturday outside the 3:00 window, Sundays, or midweek. Sky Sports essentially pioneered the late Sunday game as a regular event; the NFL is known to have been heavily influential in the EPL's decision to have 1-2 live TV games each week (including one on Monday nights during the early years).
And I've heard that Sky's really trying to Americanize the Monday Night Football concept now that they have the rights back for those matches. Football Weekly guys were talking about that yesterday... http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/audio/2010/aug/19/football-weekly-extra-podcast
The English Premier League is now limited to only 12 Monday night matches each season. An agreement was struck with the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) a few years ago to limit the number of Monday night matches to 12 (excluding the Monday matches scheduled on Bank Holidays and Easter Monday.) Most of the Monday night matches between September and December feature clubs from the middle through the bottom of the table because the "big" clubs are involved with UEFA Champions League competition.
OK, but that has nothing to do with the point I was making. The way Sky promoted and produced the Monday night game this past week made the Football Weekly contributors think that they are putting more of an American spin on it. Pregame and match also featured a new set, graphics, guests, etc. It doesn't matter how many weeks they have it for.
Q: What do you get when you put lipstick on a pig? A: A pig. Monday night EPL, especially from September through December, generally feature bad matchups between awful teams.
No doubt they will typically at best feature Manchester City or Liverpool (teams in the Europa League). For the teams in the bottom-half, of course, it's a nice way to pick up some extra shares of the Sky TV rights- it's not equally divided (foreign TV revenue always has been) as some of it is given per appearance or in the end-of-season prize money. Naturally, the visiting team's fans aren't so happy if it's a long trip!
That still has nothing to do with the point I was making. You seem to be arguing with Sky through me, which seems pointless. In spite of the limited number of matches and decline in quality when European group comps begin, Sky have bothered to reaquire the rights for Monday Night Football, promote it and invest in new production materials for the programme. Maybe you should fly to London, set up a meeting and tell them what a big mistake they're making.
It would make sense if they were used for Europa League teams after away matches. Although - in order to set that up, it would need a fair bit of coordination and foresight. Seems like Liverpool has been on Monday night very often the past season or two.
Televised games in the first half of the season are picked during the summer, while the second half games are usually picked a month or two in advance, so that type of coordination is a little easier than you might think. Liverpool, of course, failed to qualify for the Champions League round of 16 last season or that competition outright this year. Right now, they are usually the biggest ratings-getter team available to Sky for Monday games.
Spoiler (highlight to read): Now that Aston Villa have failed to advance to the UEFA Europa League group stage for the 2nd time in 2 years, NONE of the EPL matches scheduled for Monday nights in September-November 2010 will involve teams in European competition.