We didn’t really care about this until it started affecting us.
Because we’re going to be leaving work this evening while half of the night’s Champions League games are kicking off. It’s going to be peak rush-hour traffic in Dublin while Barcelona take on PSV and Spurs battle with Inter Milan.
We had something special.
7.45 was beautiful. The dinner was usually down, the feet were usually up and the tea was always stirred. It was time for the Champions League on RTÉ or TV3 or wherever it was on and one of the best things about it was that there were goals flying in from all over Europe at the same time.
We didn’t need to change things.
Half-time was brilliant and so was full-time which came at 9.50. Time for Dunphy, Brian Kerr or Richie Sadlier to sum it all up gloriously and then we had that brilliant highlights package to come from all of the night’s other games. If we were patient enough, we didn’t even know the results of the other kick-offs and watching the goals flow in was like ten minutes of heart-racing heaven.
And then it was all over by 10.30 and you’d still be getting to bed early enough for work or school or whatever you had the next day.
The ‘reason’ it was changed doesn’t wash anyway.
Who’s going to go five hours without hearing about a goal in this day and age? And even though they say the point of having them at different times is that you’ll be able to watch two games, who in their healthy minds is going to sit on a couch for five hours without stirring?
The real reason is that they probably smell more advertising money from more time on the tv.
Things change tonight. 7.45 kick-offs are a thing of the past now and listen, we’re not going to be catty enough to say that an 8.00 kick-off is any worse, but the fact that half of the games begin at 5.55, that’s a different story.
People aren’t ready to put the feet up at that time. They don’t have the whole evening for the Champions League exclusively. We’re only going to miss these games.
Games like Spurs V Inter Milan which kicks off at 5.55 tonight.
And as if to kick us while we’re already down, there will be no games free-to-air in Ireland on Wednesdays through the group stages.
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