Spare a thought for football fans in the United Kingdom. If you thought the coverage in the United States was bad, Independent Television (ITV) made a gigantic flub Wednesday night that was reminscent of the worst of US soccer coverage from the 1980s and 1990s.
During the Everton against Liverpool FA Cup replay, ITV went to commercial a few minutes before the end of extra time while the action was still unfolding at Goodison Park. While a commercial for Tic Tacs was aired on ITV, Everton’s Dan Gosling scored a last gasp winner. However, the ITV viewers missed the goal and after the commercials ended, the footage returned to show jubilant Everton supporters celebrating the goal that had just clinched a massive win for the Toffees.
In the 1980s and 1990s, it was quite common for TV companies in the United States to break for commercials throughout football matches even when the play continued. But for a football obsessed country such as the United Kingdom to have to endure such capitalistic moves by ITV is completely out of order.
According to ITV, the switching from live action to TV commercials wasn’t on purpose and was due to a technical error. ITV pundit Steve Rider apologized three times and said “I’m afraid it came at a pretty bad time. If you missed the goal our apologies.”
While it was a terrible night for ITV, I’m sure the makers of Tic Tac won’t mind the added publicity.
Watch the video here to see what happened on ITV before the Premier League tells YouTube to remove the video. Enjoy.
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