I love watching Premier League teams on television just as much as anyone, but I must admit that I’m a bit sick of EPL teams monopolizing ESPN’s Champions League coverage in their Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon timeslots.
This has been happening for a couple of years. I’m sure ESPN thinks that the more often they show Premier League teams that the greater the likelihood that TV ratings will increase, but by doing that they risk losing the neutral soccer fan who enjoys English football but wants to see some of the other great games.
Take this week for example. ESPN2 showed Aalborg against Man United yesterday and will show Liverpool versus PSV Eindhoven this afternoon. Instead of showing these two predictable matches, ESPN2 would have wiser to show Zenit St. Petersburg against Real Madrid, Bayern Munich versus Lyon, and Inter Milan against Werder Bremen.
Why not relegate the matches involving Premier League teams to ESPN Classic and show the bigger matches on ESPN2?
It didn’t used to be this way. A few years ago, the opposite was true where it was pretty difficult to see Premier League teams in action on ESPN on Champions League days. All I’m asking for is a fair and balanced offering of quality football matches that we all can enjoy and learn from.
