Taking my kids to a friend’s birthday party on Saturday morning, I had the sudden realization that perhaps the best place in the world to watch weekend soccer matches on TV is the United States. Well, at least the Eastern Time Zone in the U.S.

Why?

  1. I was able to schedule my DVR to record the best matches of the day from the Premier League, Serie A, Bundesliga and La Liga. Viewers in the United States and other countries are spoilt by the number of live matches on each day compared to the UK, where very few matches are televised live on Saturdays.
  2. I knew that no one would spoil the results for me. Being at a social event in a typical suburbs in the United States, I had no concern that an American friend or stranger would blurt out the result from any of the matches from that day. This is something that would never happen in the UK. If you tried recording a match on a Saturday with the intent of watching it later in the day after you returned home, it’d be almost impossible to avoid knowing what the scoreline was. Football is so pervasive in England. The results are mentioned throughout the media and it’d be rare if you didn’t encounter a friend or stranger talking about the results or scoreline in public.
  3. The times when the matches are played are very convenient. If your partner or family wants you to do things on a weekend, it’s pretty convenient to squeeze in one or two matches on a Saturday morning and then still have plenty of time to do whatever you want to do during the weekend. Sure, it’d be nice to watch matches during primetime on a Saturday night if you lived in Asia, but what would you missus say when you tell her you want to watch Hull against Stoke City instead of going to the cinema and dinner for a Saturday night out?

Sure, the experience of watching soccer on TV in America could be improved with better analysis by presenters and HD broadcasts, but at the end of the day we should appreciate what we have and where we live. It could be a lot worse!

What do you think? Which is the best country in the world to watch weekend soccer matches? Click the comments link below and let us know.

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