Soccer Fans: 3pm Kickoffs Thing of the Past

Fans and supporter groups outraged that there’ll only be one 3pm GMT kickoff on Saturday, October 6th should calm down. What alternative would they prefer? That most of the matches be played on the Saturday? Then they’ll complain that the clubs competing in the UEFA Cup will be too tired to play. You can’t have it both ways.

Presumably in the United States, Setanta Sports will show the Aston Villa against West Ham United match on that Saturday at 10am ET, while the only other game that Saturday will be Manchester United against Wigan Athletic at 12:15pm ET on Fox Soccer Channel.

What will more intriguing is how Fox Soccer Channel and Setanta decide which matches to show on the Sunday, October 7th when there are eight matches taking place.

It’s subject to change, but EPL Talk believes that the matches shown will be:

Arsenal v Sunderland, 7am ET, Setanta Sports
Reading v Derby County, 9am ET, Setanta Sports
Fulham v Portsmouth, 11:10am ET, Fox Soccer Channel

For the latest schedule of EPL matches on U.S. television, bookmark the EPL Talk TV Schedule page here.

The days of the traditional 3pm GMT kickoff on a Saturday have long gone. I completely understand why fans are upset. Traveling across England, especially for away fans, is an ordeal in itself and late or early kickoffs create difficulties for fans who are unable to find convenient transportation early in the day (or sometimes later in the day when trains stop running early; I’ve experienced this myself in Wales after being stuck on a platform in Cardiff).

So I sympathize with the fans but, nevertheless, we need to get used to these changes especially with TV having so much power over the sport in England.