2300 Thoughts

Internet Pay Per View?

A recent trend in World Cup Qualifier matches has been to only show the games on internet pay per view sites. I thought that this horrible atrocity was only happening to the men’s United States National team, but today was informed that is certainly not the case. England, one of the powerhouse soccer countries will be forced to endure the same kind of insanity that the United States soccer fans have been forced into.

England's World Cup qualifier against Ukraine in Kiev on the evening of October 10 will be screened exclusively live over the internet in the UK for the first time ever. As you would imagine English supporters are not happy with the decision. Instead of being able to watch the match from their favorite pubs, they will be forced to watch an internet stream (probably poor quality and slightly delayed) or pay to sit in a crummy theater to support their national team as they attempt to quality for the World Cup, the premier sporting even in the world.

I think this is just terrible public relations! The countries (Ukraine, Honduras, Mexico) are not allowing important home matches to be seen on widely available television stations in opposing nations. This practice is starting to make some national team’s not want to play “friendly matches” against these countries. I think they are really putting up a gigantic warning sign to other countries.

Soccer is the most popular sport in the world, by not allowing supporters to watch matches will only lead to more pirating of games and more illegal streams on free web sites. With all the money supporters spend on merchandise and tickets I think it is pushing it a little too far to require them to also pay to watch games on television, more than they already pay for the sports channels that frequently stream the matches.

I think the practice of not streaming important matches in opposing countries will quickly come to an end. I predict FIFA will step in before World Cup Qualifying ends and force countries to provide a reasonable means for opposing country supporters to view the matches. FIFA’s public relations team is just too good to allow this kind of ridiculous behavior to continue under its good name.