While the first forty-five minutes on Sunday were not kind to Manchester United in their hopes of winning the title, one thing was completely unexpected… If you were watching the game on Fox Soccer Plus, Manchester United’s game hadn’t even kicked off before Chelsea took a 1-0 lead thanks to the strike of Anelka.

That’s right, for viewers on Fox Soccer Plus, the Manchester United/Stoke City match on the final day of the season did not kick off live. According to readers, the kickoff didn’t occur until roughly seven minutes after the game had kicked off online at FoxSoccer.tv. EPL Talk reader Civrock tweeted his astonishment and displeasure at the delay, to which Jamie Trecker responded, “I have no idea what is going on, and I’m not going to defend it, to be frank.” According to schedule, a Serie A match was played and there was no run over past the 11 am kickoff to the Premier League match. Meanwhile, the match was being shown live on FoxSoccer.tv

I have to give Jamie Trecker a little bit of credit here. He knew Fox Soccer International had screwed up in a major way and, in situations like this, there is no reason to attempt and defend the actions of his employer. After rushing Fox Soccer Plus into existence after Setanta Sports went away, it’s been a major uphill battle getting the a la carte channel on the same number of platforms that Setanta Sports was on in the first place. It has also been an even bigger uphill battle to get subscribers for the channel.

After today, expect plenty of fans to remember this moment and be extremely hesitant to subscribe to any add-ons from Fox Soccer International. While there have been many problems with Fox Soccer’s online product, some of those issues were starting to be worked out. However, it’s a case of too little to late for many people to give the product a second chance (that implies that people gave it a chance in the first place). I would expect many of the same people to now not give Fox Soccer Plus a chance should the opportunity arise to subscribe.

What are your thoughts on Fox Soccer Plus’s final day debacle? Let us know in the comments below.

Editor’s note: Fox Soccer Plus cut their commercials short at half-time and was able to play the second half live so that it was in sync with the FoxSoccer.tv coverage as well as Chelsea’s demolition of Wigan Athletic.