Better late than never but exciting all the same was the announcement today that the English Football League aka EFL is back on Foxtel courtesy of the Bein Sports Channels. What sensational news, with a full book of midweek games just about to kick off tomorrow morning. Great too is the fact that it is a 5 year deal, so a repeat of this effort will at last be delayed until after the end of this decade.
They are certainly not stuffing around either, with a delayed coverage of the big top O the table clash between Cardiff City and Leeds United tomorrow.
Happy days for us too as our favourite English Football League team Ipswich Town get a primetime slot on Saturday evening on the first weekend of live EFL for the 2017-18 season.
Good on all involved for finally getting a deal done. As said previously, better late than never, and after our substantial moan on the subject a few weeks back. But maybe all parties involved could learn a few things from the process.
LESSONS FROM THE EFL-FOXTEL-BEIN SPORTS DELAYED DEAL
The EFL came across as quite greedy in the process, getting maximum money out a TV deal is great, but it means bugger all if no one will pay for it. And as much as we and others love the English Football League, it is still a second tier competition and a second tier cup competition. The EPL may be able to get massive increases on TV deals, but the EFL will always struggle to do the same.
Foxtel could have handled it better. The fact that most fans tuned in for the first weekend and had no idea the games were not going to be broadcast was extremely poor and the only updates were via the Community Forum of which most of the hard work was done by the customers themselves. Fair enough if the broadcast deal took a while to negotiate, but do the right thing and keep fans informed. English Football fans are already sceptical of Foxtel after losing rights to EPL.
Both Foxtel and Bein Sports shouldn’t underestimate the support of English Football League in Australia. The Community piece on the Foxtel site was 21 pages and counting by the time today’s announcement was done. And a lot of them were angry, and you could only imagine the silent majority too. EFL on Foxtel Community link.
Foxtel needed the EFL to look credible as a broadcaster of football. After losing the EPL rights, it would have been a bad look to lose the EFL in consecutive years. The European football is great on Bein Sports, however it lacks something if there is no English Football of any kind. And you then wonder what they lose next, not what might be added.
ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL
Despite the Football League-less past few months, we say all is forgiven as we settle in for a plethora of English Football League games until May.
Hopefully by that stage we are supporting a certain Ipswich Town in the playoffs or are already cheering a promotion to the EPL. Although if they did, ironically we wouldn’t see them on Foxtel anymore.
But for now we’ll take the EFL returning to Foxtel – Bein Sports. Miracles like any Ipswich Town achievement can wait.
