Why Aren’t US Football Friendlies on at UK Friendly Times?
There is something quite frustrating going on for Liverpool supporters in the UK this summer. Most of us completely understand that the club has to do tours of different regions in order to allow fans in those areas to get to experience watching the Reds play live at least once in their lives.
There is also the fact that it will no doubt be very helpful for the club’s commercial department to be able to go to different locations around the world and do some publicity work whilst they’re there. That’s all well and good, but it feels as though the supporters at home are being completely forgotten about during that particular process.
That is being demonstrated really well by Liverpool on the club’s tour of America. It is genuinely brilliant that the club is spending time in the likes of Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and South Carolina. Looking at the photos and videos that have already emerged from the United States of America, it looks as though the local fans are having an amazing time and the players are really enjoying themselves.
The problem is that the games are being played in the early hours, UK-time, meaning that those of us that aren’t lucky enough to be able to fly out to the US either have to be really tired the following day or miss out in real time.
Many English Games are Played at US-Friendly Times
The major frustration about this, at least as far as I’m concerned, is that countries like the United States are thought of when a number of important matches are played in the United Kingdom. A 12.30pm kick-off on a Saturday, for example, is around 7.30am in Washington. The fact that the US has so many different time zones means that that isn’t the case across the board, of course.
It would be about 4.30am in Los Angeles, say. Yet something like the FA Cup final has routinely been kicking off at 5.30pm because that is idea for pretty much everywhere in the States, given that it’s 9.30am in LA and 12.30pm in the likes of New York.
These FA Cup kick-off times are a disgrace. Spurs v City. Chelsea v Villa. Fulham v Newcastle and West Brom v Brentford/Wolves. @FA a joke once again. Fans never, ever considered.
— Kevin Parker (@KevinP184) January 11, 2024
I think that’s absolutely fine, personally. I have no problem with the Premier League, the Football Association and other organisations doing what they can to maximise on the audience around the world. It is part of what allows them to bring in such huge sums of money that gets converted into players and helps us all be entertained on a regular basis.
I think there should be a conversation around the 3pm blackout, to say nothing of the manner in which pretty much every single country apart from the one in which the matches are actually been played gets to watch every kick-off for a nominal sum of money, but there won’t be.
I also think we need to have a sensible discussion about the manner in which kick-off times are changed and altered in order to suit television schedules, regardless of how much it affects the travelling supporters. That is a lack of consideration that should be put front and centre around any discussions regarding kick-off times.
Yet my point really is that the broadcasters are regularly taking the audience in the United States into account during the standard season, yet in the pre-season any thoughts about us fans back home are all but abandoned altogether in favour of ensuring that they can get as many people attending games out there as possible.
Most of us Can’t Stay up into the Early Hours
Here is a look at the kick-off times of Liverpool’s friendlies this summer, from the point of view of the UK-based audience:
- Liverpool v Real Betis: 12.30am kick-off
- Liverpool v Arsenal: 12.30am kick-off
- Liverpool v Manchester United: 12.45am kick-off
If you wanted to stay up and watch them then you would be heading to bed at around 2.30am to 2.45am. I remember my days as a student when that would routinely be the kind of time that I would go to bed to get some sleep.
I’m sure that there are many people who are still able to do so nowadays, either because they are students themselves or else they are my age and are getting to the point where they can’t really sleep properly anymore.
@tee025s Liverpool leave Pittsburg after their first preseason win over Real Betis and travel to Philadelphia on their next tour of the USA #LFC #LFCPreSeason
For everyone else, though, the kick-off times are extremely inconvenient. This might ordinarily be the sort of thing that we would all be willing to turn a blind eye to, given the fact that pre-season matches are often best ignored altogether. This summer, however, is Arne Slot’s first in the Liverpool manager’s role, or ‘head coach’ as the club are calling him, so it would be nice for us all to get the chance to see what he’s doing with the team.
Instead of getting that opportunity, though, the majority of us who have day jobs and lives to be getting on with have to make do with highlight reels or explanations of how we played from those who were there.
Coping with the departure of Jürgen Klopp isn’t an easy one for most people. The German cemented his place in Liverpool folklore not only by winning the Champions League and taking us to the club’s first title of the Premier League era but also just by the way that he behaved ands presented himself.
I, like many, am keen to see what Arne Slot is going to do with the team, but the scheduling of the games in the United States of America has not taken the club’s English fans into account at all at a time when we could all do with having some sort of sense of what the forthcoming season is going to bring. It will a surprise for most of us instead.
What Does it Tell us About Possible Premier League Games in the US?
The other reason I think it’s important to have a conversation about the kick-off times during the tour of the United States of America is that the noises continue to grow regarding actual Premier League matches being played out there. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who is a Liverpool supporter himself, recently said,
“We’ve got seven Premier League clubs in London but when you look at the way the Premier League works, a lot of the revenue they receive is TV rights.
I think the point that the Premier League would make and some of the owners would make is, why can’t their fans in those countries benefit from a competitive game?”
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has called for Premier League games to be played in the United States
“Liverpool, the club I support, are currently on tour in America,”
“They have big fans in America. Why can’t those fans see a competitive game?”
LEAVE OUR GAME ALONE pic.twitter.com/2STGonoKV0
— The 44 (@The_Forty_Four) July 26, 2024
It feels as though there will inevitably come a point when supporter groups are going to have to work together to protest against that happening. There are loads of reasons why it shouldn’t with the potential kick-off time being low down the list. Yet can you imagine the Merseyside derby kicking off at 12.30am in the UK because it’s been moved to the United States?
How frustrating would it be for a potential title-decider between Liverpool and Arsenal to be starting during the early hours, just because it has been decided that a Premier League game should be played in Dubai? This is a story we all need to keep an eye on.
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