Does anyone actually bother watching this!!!! :eek:
I find that a bit disrespectful. The Olympics women's team filled grounds and got around 3m on TV if not more. While it might not to be to your tastes, women have the right to compete in any sport. There is interest in the women's game.
I find that a bit disrespectful. The Olympics women's team filled grounds and got around 3m on TV if not more. While it might not to be to your tastes, women have the right to compete in any sport. There is interest in the women's game.
Its not disrespectful at all. I was just asking a question. Dont think you can judge it on the olympics, because i think if you had tiddly winks in the Olympics, people would watch it.
I mean these types of games. There is no way it will get anywhere near 3m watching it. Would be surprised if got anywhere near 1m.
Personally id rather watch a mens game in a park than womens football.
Does anyone actually bother watching this!!!! :eek:
I did and really enjoyed it.Mind you have to say as a shallow male I've always liked Jacqui Oatley on 5Live but now I've seen what she looks like I think I'm in love (or is it lust?):o
Its not disrespectful at all. I was just asking a question.
You weren't JUST asking a question though were you.
In fact it's barely a question (for one thing there's no question marks but plenty of exclamation marks highlighting your surprise.) but more making of a statement. As I have done above.
Well, since it's twenty years of the Champions League (although it started the same season as the Premier League, of course, who celebrated last season), I thought it might be fun to reminisce about British TV coverage over the years, because that's how I roll. If people think the foreign website posts are boring, get a load of this.
Of course it's always been on ITV although in the early days it was a bit more informal than they have now. In the first season, 1992-93, when Rangers were in the group stage, the ITV coverage was a bit patchy, while they were all shown in Scotland, in England some were networked, some were highlights only and according to my Radio Times, Granada showed a couple live that other English regions didn't bother with, including the match away to Bruges which is billed as an episode of Scotsport with Jim White presenting and Gerry McNee commentating, though I think that might be a mistake. Certainly Granada did in those days take any oportunity for a bit of football, in August 1995 they alone the English regions showed Rangers' qualifier live.
In 1993-94, after Man U went out, ITV didn't show another live game, with the rest of the competition as highlights only, which as with much late night ITV in those days shuffled around the schedules depending on the region, from 10.30 to post-midnight. The BBC showed the final, and it was suggested that ITV sub-licenced it because they already had Arsenal in the Cup-Winners' Cup Final and didn't want football two weeks running, but apparently it was because the European Cup Final didn't come as part of the Champions League deal in those days and the old alternating contract still applied. In 1994-95, the coverage was the same, giving up when Man U went out of it. In those days too the kick-off times were very flexible, I remember Barcelona vs Man U was an 8.30 kick-off.
1995-96 is when it started to become the behemoth we know and love, because Russia aside all the kick-off times were the same (at 7.30) and ITV were obliged to show a match from every round regardless of whether British teams were still in it, hence Ajax vs Panathinakos in primetime, much to everyone's bemusement. At least in 1996-97 that wasn't so much of a problem as Man U got out of the group for the first time.
1997-98 was the first time there were two English teams in it, plus the kick-off times moved again to 7.45. I'm pretty sure this was the only season a CL match was ever played on a Thursday as Man U vs Kosice was played on that night, perhaps by request of ITV, so they could show them and Newcastle in the same week. Granada Plus used to show the other English match at this point. 1998-99 was, as far as I'm concerned, the zenith of the competition, I'm not a Man U fan but in those days the competition was small enough for every game still to feel quite special and I have fond memories of their run to the final that year, it felt like a proper glamorous, important event. I rememember when they played Inter, Diego Simeone went off injured and the Italian director followed him off the pitch, through the changing rooms and into the ambulance.
Then in 1999-2000 we had the new expanded Champions League, of course, with Tuesday games on ONDigital and Wednesday games on ITV and ITV2, plus Des of course. What with the second group stage you now had matches more or less every week. The Tuesday games had highlights on ITV at 10pm with Bob and I remember Teletext running a story saying "To make up for Des' arrival, Bob Wilson is getting his own show", and I faithfully referred to the highlights as The Bob Wilson Show for the next three years. On Wednesdays ONDigital did ONGoals which was a Soccer Saturday-esque show showing the goals just after they were scored.
The same was the case in 2000-01, where Leeds didn't get live on the netwrok at all until the quater finals, and I remember Man u vs Anderlecht, their opening game, was the test tranmission for the ITV Sport Channel a year later.
Er, I'll carry on in another post as this is already going on a bit.
Al Jazeera Sport +3 - Gary Lineker with Kenny Dalglish, Ray Wilkins & Trevor Francis.
Commentary: Alan Parry & Gary Neville
UEFA.com
Barcelona v Spartak Moscow - Tim White Shakhtar Donetsk v FC Nordsjaelland - John Bradley Braga v CFR Cluj-Napoca - Chris Sharples Man United v Galatasary - Jonathan Beck Lille v BATE Borisov - Jon Harris-Bass Chelsea v Juventus - Phil Blacker Celtic v Benfica - Andrew James Bayern Munich v Valencia - Adam Summerton
Yeah, so in 2001-02, we had matches on ITV, ITV Sport and ITV Sport Plus. The first round of fixtures of course started on September 11th, so the Tuesday matches were played but the Wednesday ones weren't. That season they also did that split when Liverpool vs Barcelona was shown on ITV on the Tuesday everywhere except Carlton, who showed The Bill and Millionaire, and then Arsenal on Wednesday was only on Carlton, with everyone else showing The Bill and Millionaire. Also that season Bayern vs Man U (a dreadful 0-0) was on before the first episode of the second series of Survivor, and Mark Nicholas did a trailer at half time when he said "Hmm, 0-0, not bad" and I'd love to know how many of those he had to film ("Hmm, 10-0"). At the end of the season the second leg of Man U's semi-final was only going to be on ITV Sport but as it was imploding they gave up and put it on ITV1 as well.
The following season was the fantastic season when games were on ITV1 and ITV2 on Tuesday - Tuesday becoming the main ITV1 day - and ITV2 and ITV News on Wednesday. The ITV2 and ITV News games all had 45 minutes of exclusive build-up which was good fun. You also had Tyldesley, Drury, Champion and Mowbray swapping around all the teams, and Atkinson, Pleat, Beglin and David Fairclough as co-commentators. The embarrassment for ITV was that the first few matches on ITV News could only be shown on cable because on satellite it wasn't encrypted enough and on Freeview it wasn't on air at the time. Then at the end of the second group stage they stupidly showed a dead rubber Man U game on ITV1 and crucial Arsenal and Newcastle games on ITV2 (with Des!) and should have been ITV News, but because it was the day the Gulf War started, it was on Granada Plus, and when people complained ITV pretended they weren't allowed to show matches on ITV1 on Wednesday, despite the fact three weeks earlier they'd shown a Man U match on ITV1 on a Wednesday because it was Man U.
2003-04 of course saw the arrival of Sky and the Game For A Laugh studio set-up we know so well. ITV still had two matches on a Tuesday on ITV1 and ITV2, though this was the last season only three English teams were in it, as Newcastle failed to get past the qualifiers, and because ITV didn't want to show Celtic on ITV1, it meant they had to show Arsenal every time they played on a Tuesday, even when they were away to Lokomotiv Moscow and kicking off at 5.30, messing up all the schedules.
I got Sky during the 2004-05 season and in those days their Champions League coverage was a bit different to what we get now. On Wednesdays the Sky Sports 2 build-up was simulcast on Sky Sports Xtra right up until the final ad break at 7.35. The main coverage of the English team on Sky Sports Xtra didn't have the studio coverage we have now, but the commentators linked it all in-vision, which I used to love because we don't see Rob Hawthorne and Alan Parry on camera enough. Then after the final whistle they'd just simulcast the SS2 post-match coverage again. What used to annoy me is that for all the talk of flicking around, if you'd watched another match, the post-match stuff on SS2 would discuss their live game as if you'd seen it, so the first you'd see of the goals from the game would be in slow motion and so forth. Whereas now, rightly, they start again from scratch at ten.
Since then it's all been plain sailing. In 2005-06, as I say, was that terrible ITV concept of Gabby in the studio and Andy and Ally pitchside. It was 2009-10 that ITV went down to just one match on a Wednesday, then this season back on Tuesday. And that's it. But do share your memories of this competition, why don't you?
You weren't JUST asking a question though were you.
In fact it's barely a question (for one thing there's no question marks but plenty of exclamation marks highlighting your surprise.) but more making of a statement. As I have done above.
Bill O'Herlihy presenting with John Giles, Richie Sadlier and Liam Brady.
Commentators: George Hamilton and Ronnie Whelan
I found this article on Eamon Dunphy's absence:
SOCCER pundit Eamon Dunphy won't be giving his controversial views on an Irish international for the first time in a decade.
The RTE loudmouth (below) won't be on our screens to judge Trapattoni's efforts tonight, as he is suffering from illness.
Dunphy informed Montrose station bosses in recent days that he required some hospital treatment -- although the exact nature of the illness is unknown.
Jeff Stelling presenting with Jamie Redknapp Ruud Gullit and Graeme Souness
Ben Shephard presenting with Dwight Yorke
David Tanner presenting with John Collins
If someone can tell me why Man U and Chelsea, and Man City and Arsenal, are always playing at home on the same night, I'd love to know. Normally one English club would be at home and the other away, wouldn't they? Anyway, Jeff's in the usual Bond villain lair, Ben's in the cupboard they use for the secondary match and Tanner is at the ground. Presumably when they're all away Tanner will be in an even smaller cupboard.
As for the other discussion, I don't want this to sound like ganging up but I think we all know by now that Homesdale doesn't like women's football and I don't think he needs to tell us every time it's mentioned. They'll be wanting to drive next, eh?
Shakhtar Donetsk v FC Nordsjaelland - Tony Jones & Garry Birtles Lille v BATE Borisov - Kevin Keatings & Terry Gibson Barcelona v Spartak Moscow - Rob Palmer & Gerry Armstrong Sporting Braga v CFR Cluj-Napoca - John Driscoll & David Philips
Does anyone actually bother watching this!!!! :eek:
This one was on too early (5pm) for it to get a decent viewership. If it had been on later it might have got a few million viewers, but with men's football in full flow again women's football won't be on in primetime any time soon. I'm not being PC here. The quality of women's football is good on an international level.
Oh, so they're not. It doesn't normally happen on any matchday, though, does it? Watch me get proved wrong with that too.
The thing about women's football is that the people who run it have often said it should be treated as a completely different sport, like rugby union and league, rather than an inferior form of men's football. But you can hardly complain about it being on, they only show about half a dozen matches a year. You don't have to be Germaine Greer to think it's nice to have some on TV.
Oh, so they're not. It doesn't normally happen on any matchday, though, does it? Watch me get proved wrong with that too.
I'm not sure to be honest.
UEFA has a set formula for how the teams play the 6 games (ie with each team designated 1, 2, 3 or 4 though I don't THINK those designations are necessarily the same as the pot seedings).
Whether any aspect of the formula has changed I don't know.
The only bit I remember is you always play the same team on MD3 and MD4 and that remains the same.
When there are as many as four clubs from the same country, isn't it only teams from the same city who don't play at home on the same night? In other words, had Arsenal and Chelsea or Man Utd and Man City both been playing on the same night they would not have played at home simultaneously. But a Arsenal-City and Utd-Chelsea split is okay.
When there are as many as four clubs from the same country, isn't it only teams from the same city who don't play at home on the same night? In other words, had Arsenal and Chelsea or Man Utd and Man City both been playing on the same night they would not have played at home simultaneously. But a Arsenal-City and Utd-Chelsea split is okay.
That's how I see it.
I guess, but from the broadcasters' point of view, surely you want one at home and one away so you don't have to stretch your resources by covering two in one night, and then sit twiddling your thumbs the next week?
Bill O'Herlihy presenting with John Giles, Richie Sadlier and Liam Brady.
Commentators: George Hamilton and Ronnie Whelan
Just to add to RTE Champions League Coverage tonight:
Commentators:
Chelsea v Juventus - Peter Collins
Celtic v Benfica - Jimmy Magee
Real Madrid v Manchester City - Stephen Alkin
Round-Up: Darragh Maloney, Con Murphy & Stephen Alkin Reporter: Tony O'Donohue
Con Murphy & Stephen Alkin voiced the highlights while Darragh Maloney linked them from the other end of the RTE studio before handing back to Bill and the panel. Tony O'Donohue was also at Old Trafford as a reporter and it was the first time in a long time that Jimmy Magee was involved in a Champions League match.
Also top quality posts about the history of the Champions League on ITV earlier by Steve Williams, they were certainly appreciated by myself
Good posts indeed by Steve Williams looking back at Champions League coverage on UK television. Since I'm born and raised in the Faroe Islands (member of the Kingdom of Denmark) and studied in Denmark, I've always watched Champions League on Danish TV. I moved to Ireland last year and am now enjoying the coverage on Sky Sports, RTÉ and ITV. It's very comprehensive. The Danish coverage is comprehensive too, but I've never before had access to all the matches like I have with Sky Sports.
I think it was better for ITV to have the match on Wednesday, because that allowed them to have one highlights programme only with the whole round. Why do ITV have the match on Tuesday this season?
I think it was better for ITV to have the match on Wednesday, because that allowed them to have one highlights programme only with the whole round. Why do ITV have the match on Tuesday this season?
I agree it would be better for ITV to have it on Tuesday but they prefer to have all their football on one night of the week, previously it was Wednesday when they got the England matches and FA Cup in 2009 but now its all back to Tuesday because the England qualifiers have moved and they only went for the rights on Tuesday I believe. Also Tuesday night is traditionally the worst night of the week for ITV so having football in that slot will help them solve that problem
Comments
I find that a bit disrespectful. The Olympics women's team filled grounds and got around 3m on TV if not more. While it might not to be to your tastes, women have the right to compete in any sport. There is interest in the women's game.
Reporter: Karthi Gnanasegaram
Its not disrespectful at all. I was just asking a question. Dont think you can judge it on the olympics, because i think if you had tiddly winks in the Olympics, people would watch it.
I mean these types of games. There is no way it will get anywhere near 3m watching it. Would be surprised if got anywhere near 1m.
Personally id rather watch a mens game in a park than womens football.
You weren't JUST asking a question though were you.
In fact it's barely a question (for one thing there's no question marks but plenty of exclamation marks highlighting your surprise.) but more making of a statement. As I have done above.
It was HIGHLY disrespectful for the record.
Of course it's always been on ITV although in the early days it was a bit more informal than they have now. In the first season, 1992-93, when Rangers were in the group stage, the ITV coverage was a bit patchy, while they were all shown in Scotland, in England some were networked, some were highlights only and according to my Radio Times, Granada showed a couple live that other English regions didn't bother with, including the match away to Bruges which is billed as an episode of Scotsport with Jim White presenting and Gerry McNee commentating, though I think that might be a mistake. Certainly Granada did in those days take any oportunity for a bit of football, in August 1995 they alone the English regions showed Rangers' qualifier live.
In 1993-94, after Man U went out, ITV didn't show another live game, with the rest of the competition as highlights only, which as with much late night ITV in those days shuffled around the schedules depending on the region, from 10.30 to post-midnight. The BBC showed the final, and it was suggested that ITV sub-licenced it because they already had Arsenal in the Cup-Winners' Cup Final and didn't want football two weeks running, but apparently it was because the European Cup Final didn't come as part of the Champions League deal in those days and the old alternating contract still applied. In 1994-95, the coverage was the same, giving up when Man U went out of it. In those days too the kick-off times were very flexible, I remember Barcelona vs Man U was an 8.30 kick-off.
1995-96 is when it started to become the behemoth we know and love, because Russia aside all the kick-off times were the same (at 7.30) and ITV were obliged to show a match from every round regardless of whether British teams were still in it, hence Ajax vs Panathinakos in primetime, much to everyone's bemusement. At least in 1996-97 that wasn't so much of a problem as Man U got out of the group for the first time.
1997-98 was the first time there were two English teams in it, plus the kick-off times moved again to 7.45. I'm pretty sure this was the only season a CL match was ever played on a Thursday as Man U vs Kosice was played on that night, perhaps by request of ITV, so they could show them and Newcastle in the same week. Granada Plus used to show the other English match at this point. 1998-99 was, as far as I'm concerned, the zenith of the competition, I'm not a Man U fan but in those days the competition was small enough for every game still to feel quite special and I have fond memories of their run to the final that year, it felt like a proper glamorous, important event. I rememember when they played Inter, Diego Simeone went off injured and the Italian director followed him off the pitch, through the changing rooms and into the ambulance.
Then in 1999-2000 we had the new expanded Champions League, of course, with Tuesday games on ONDigital and Wednesday games on ITV and ITV2, plus Des of course. What with the second group stage you now had matches more or less every week. The Tuesday games had highlights on ITV at 10pm with Bob and I remember Teletext running a story saying "To make up for Des' arrival, Bob Wilson is getting his own show", and I faithfully referred to the highlights as The Bob Wilson Show for the next three years. On Wednesdays ONDigital did ONGoals which was a Soccer Saturday-esque show showing the goals just after they were scored.
The same was the case in 2000-01, where Leeds didn't get live on the netwrok at all until the quater finals, and I remember Man u vs Anderlecht, their opening game, was the test tranmission for the ITV Sport Channel a year later.
Er, I'll carry on in another post as this is already going on a bit.
Sky Sports HD2/2
Jeff Stelling presenting with Jamie Redknapp Ruud Gullit and Graeme Souness
Alan Parry with Gary Neville
Manchester United v Galatasaray
Sky Sports HD4/4
Ben Shephard presenting with Dwight Yorke
Rob Hawthorne with Niall Quinn
Celtic v Benfica
Sky Sports HD3/3
David Tanner presenting with John Collins
Ian Crocker with Davie Provan
Bayern Munich v Valencia
Sky Sports Xtra
Gary Weaver with Don Goodman
Al Jazeera Sport +3 - Gary Lineker with Kenny Dalglish, Ray Wilkins & Trevor Francis.
Commentary: Alan Parry & Gary Neville
UEFA.com
Barcelona v Spartak Moscow - Tim White
Shakhtar Donetsk v FC Nordsjaelland - John Bradley
Braga v CFR Cluj-Napoca - Chris Sharples
Man United v Galatasary - Jonathan Beck
Lille v BATE Borisov - Jon Harris-Bass
Chelsea v Juventus - Phil Blacker
Celtic v Benfica - Andrew James
Bayern Munich v Valencia - Adam Summerton
The following season was the fantastic season when games were on ITV1 and ITV2 on Tuesday - Tuesday becoming the main ITV1 day - and ITV2 and ITV News on Wednesday. The ITV2 and ITV News games all had 45 minutes of exclusive build-up which was good fun. You also had Tyldesley, Drury, Champion and Mowbray swapping around all the teams, and Atkinson, Pleat, Beglin and David Fairclough as co-commentators. The embarrassment for ITV was that the first few matches on ITV News could only be shown on cable because on satellite it wasn't encrypted enough and on Freeview it wasn't on air at the time. Then at the end of the second group stage they stupidly showed a dead rubber Man U game on ITV1 and crucial Arsenal and Newcastle games on ITV2 (with Des!) and should have been ITV News, but because it was the day the Gulf War started, it was on Granada Plus, and when people complained ITV pretended they weren't allowed to show matches on ITV1 on Wednesday, despite the fact three weeks earlier they'd shown a Man U match on ITV1 on a Wednesday because it was Man U.
2003-04 of course saw the arrival of Sky and the Game For A Laugh studio set-up we know so well. ITV still had two matches on a Tuesday on ITV1 and ITV2, though this was the last season only three English teams were in it, as Newcastle failed to get past the qualifiers, and because ITV didn't want to show Celtic on ITV1, it meant they had to show Arsenal every time they played on a Tuesday, even when they were away to Lokomotiv Moscow and kicking off at 5.30, messing up all the schedules.
I got Sky during the 2004-05 season and in those days their Champions League coverage was a bit different to what we get now. On Wednesdays the Sky Sports 2 build-up was simulcast on Sky Sports Xtra right up until the final ad break at 7.35. The main coverage of the English team on Sky Sports Xtra didn't have the studio coverage we have now, but the commentators linked it all in-vision, which I used to love because we don't see Rob Hawthorne and Alan Parry on camera enough. Then after the final whistle they'd just simulcast the SS2 post-match coverage again. What used to annoy me is that for all the talk of flicking around, if you'd watched another match, the post-match stuff on SS2 would discuss their live game as if you'd seen it, so the first you'd see of the goals from the game would be in slow motion and so forth. Whereas now, rightly, they start again from scratch at ten.
Since then it's all been plain sailing. In 2005-06, as I say, was that terrible ITV concept of Gabby in the studio and Andy and Ally pitchside. It was 2009-10 that ITV went down to just one match on a Wednesday, then this season back on Tuesday. And that's it. But do share your memories of this competition, why don't you?
Blimey, calm down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Man Utd v Galatasaray
Bill O'Herlihy presenting with John Giles, Richie Sadlier and Liam Brady.
Commentators: George Hamilton and Ronnie Whelan
I found this article on Eamon Dunphy's absence:
I hope it isn't too serious, because I like him as a pundit. Always very frank, albeit he speaks rubbish sometimes.
If someone can tell me why Man U and Chelsea, and Man City and Arsenal, are always playing at home on the same night, I'd love to know. Normally one English club would be at home and the other away, wouldn't they? Anyway, Jeff's in the usual Bond villain lair, Ben's in the cupboard they use for the secondary match and Tanner is at the ground. Presumably when they're all away Tanner will be in an even smaller cupboard.
As for the other discussion, I don't want this to sound like ganging up but I think we all know by now that Homesdale doesn't like women's football and I don't think he needs to tell us every time it's mentioned. They'll be wanting to drive next, eh?
Lille v BATE Borisov - Kevin Keatings & Terry Gibson
Barcelona v Spartak Moscow - Rob Palmer & Gerry Armstrong
Sporting Braga v CFR Cluj-Napoca - John Driscoll & David Philips
They're not on MD3 or MD4!
Oh, so they're not. It doesn't normally happen on any matchday, though, does it? Watch me get proved wrong with that too.
The thing about women's football is that the people who run it have often said it should be treated as a completely different sport, like rugby union and league, rather than an inferior form of men's football. But you can hardly complain about it being on, they only show about half a dozen matches a year. You don't have to be Germaine Greer to think it's nice to have some on TV.
I'm not sure to be honest.
UEFA has a set formula for how the teams play the 6 games (ie with each team designated 1, 2, 3 or 4 though I don't THINK those designations are necessarily the same as the pot seedings).
Whether any aspect of the formula has changed I don't know.
The only bit I remember is you always play the same team on MD3 and MD4 and that remains the same.
great post, brought it all back for me!
That's how I see it.
"I was surprised Juventus where as good as they were tonight." Christ they where Italian champions and join leaders so far!
I guess, but from the broadcasters' point of view, surely you want one at home and one away so you don't have to stretch your resources by covering two in one night, and then sit twiddling your thumbs the next week?
They also have half the team that got to the finals of Euro 2012.
He's a clown. He doesn't seem to realise that football exists outside of England.
Just to add to RTE Champions League Coverage tonight:
Commentators:
Chelsea v Juventus - Peter Collins
Celtic v Benfica - Jimmy Magee
Real Madrid v Manchester City - Stephen Alkin
Round-Up: Darragh Maloney, Con Murphy & Stephen Alkin
Reporter: Tony O'Donohue
Con Murphy & Stephen Alkin voiced the highlights while Darragh Maloney linked them from the other end of the RTE studio before handing back to Bill and the panel. Tony O'Donohue was also at Old Trafford as a reporter and it was the first time in a long time that Jimmy Magee was involved in a Champions League match.
Also top quality posts about the history of the Champions League on ITV earlier by Steve Williams, they were certainly appreciated by myself
I think it was better for ITV to have the match on Wednesday, because that allowed them to have one highlights programme only with the whole round. Why do ITV have the match on Tuesday this season?
I agree it would be better for ITV to have it on Tuesday but they prefer to have all their football on one night of the week, previously it was Wednesday when they got the England matches and FA Cup in 2009 but now its all back to Tuesday because the England qualifiers have moved and they only went for the rights on Tuesday I believe. Also Tuesday night is traditionally the worst night of the week for ITV so having football in that slot will help them solve that problem