Today marked the debut of the UEFA Champions League, the world’s premier club event on the FOX networks.

FOX’s pre game coverage was outstanding with Max Bretos, Bobby McMahon and Warren Barton enhancing the previous coverage we were accustomed to from ESPN in the United States.

The pre-game show provides build up, analysis and information for the matchups and actually proved to be more educational and worth my time than any ESPN Press Pass broadcast built around that network’s UEFA CL coverage.

But more importantly, is the access to games. For those of us who subscribe to DIRECTV, I was pleasantly surprised to find all five active games on live: one on Setanta, one FSN, one on FSE, one on FSC and one on DIRECTV Channel 453.

Fox has worked not only to increase access to the product via initiatives with DIRECTV and cable operators, but has also reached out to journalists and bloggers in a way ESPN never did to promote its coverage. Many of our readers saw the video of my colleague the Gaffer on EPL Talk with his FOX promotional package.

I was fortunate to receive the same package from FOX promoting its coverage.

Now back to the games………………