EPL 2007-2008 Season

[MattyC]

Looks like we are getting some HD Games finally from overseas. Although it's looking like Setanta has the rights to "Soccer Saturday". Might be like 15 bucks a month for it.

Score, Setanta Sharing EPL

---------------------------------------------

THE SCORE SCHEDULE

The initial television broadcast schedule of games to air on The Score and The Score HD is as follows:

12-Aug 11am Man U Reading

19-Aug 11am Liverpool Chelsea

26-Aug 11am Man U Tottenham

2-Sep 11am Aston Villa Chelsea

16-Sep 11am Man City Aston Villa

23-Sep 11am Man U Chelsea

30-Sep 11am Everton Middlesbrough

7-Oct 11am Fulham Portsmouth

21-Oct 11am West Ham U Sunderland

28-Oct 11am Liverpool Arsenal

4-Nov 11am West Ham U Bolton

11-Nov 11am Portsmouth Man City

25-Nov 11am Fulham Blackburn

[Booche]

26-Aug 11am Man U Tottenham

That is some baaaaaaaaad timing for me Ollie (from what I remember). I believe I heard Lynn say that we are away at a wedding.

[Davey Boy 2.0]

19-Aug 11am Liverpool Chelsea

I'll predict some fisticuffs and pugilism between matty and TM for this one

[Tissue Man]

Looks like we are getting some HD Games finally from overseas. Although it's looking like Setanta has the rights to "Soccer Saturday". Might be like 15 bucks a month for it.

15$

boooooooooooooooooooo....

looks like the georgetown for saturdays.

[M.O.B.E]

Here is a nice shot of the new Anfield. It looks alot bigger

[Davey Boy 2.0]

Looks like we are getting some HD Games finally from overseas. Although it's looking like Setanta has the rights to "Soccer Saturday". Might be like 15 bucks a month for it.

Score, Setanta Sharing EPL

This realllllly really fuckin sucks. I don't want to pay any more than i already am and setanta blows hard on their coverage most of the time. Add to that the fooking pseudo Brit on the Score and it's going to be one awful season of coverage of the PL.

I'm seriously tempted to cancel xpressvu entirely, 97% of tv sucks anyway and the rest you can DL. I'd miss the sports but at the same time i'm sick of the continual gouging.

[ollie]

Cool that Setanta will be available on digital cable, hopefully Rogers in Ottawa picks it up. But the extra $$ sucks.

I hope The Score HD shows the games in true high definition and not just standard definition stretched to fit the screen like most of their content. If so I'll be pretty stoked~!

Just over two weeks to go!

[M.O.B.E]

Rangers v Chelsea this saturday in Glasgow. I cant wait for this, the supporters club I go to has been sold out for weeks for this game. Rangers tied Ajax 1-1 this week already. Things are looking up this year.

[M.O.B.E]

FULL TIME RESULT

Rangers 2 Chelsea 0

What a good game!!! This game was played at some pace and Rangers really took the game to Chelsea. It was like watching a knockout game in the CL. Chelsea didnt hold anything back either with Sheva and Drogba starting up front. They caused Rangers defence a few problems in the first half but were played out the the game in the second half before they each came off

HT: Rangers 0 Chelsea 0

RANGERS and Chelsea have failed to find the net at half-time in today's glamour friendly at Ibrox but the match is proving to be a hugely beneficial workout for both teams.

A packed Ibrox Stadium applauded their heroes prior to kick-off but the visitors almost silenced the Ibrox faithful after only 20 seconds with a lightning quick move.

Shevchenko picked the ball up on the left and squared the ball to Steve Sidwell but the former Reading midfielder's shot went wide of target.

Three minutes later and it was Rangers that should have taken an early lead.

Davie Weir found Kris Boyd with a long pass behind the Chelsea backline but the prolific hitman's control took him wide and Cech was there to save his effort.

It was clear from the start of this match that this was going to be a high-tempo, British style of game despite so many foreigners on show and the pace showed no signs of slowing down with both every player on the pitch desperate to secure a place in their manager's plans ahead of the new SPL and Premiership seasons.

Carlos Cuellar has already showed his talent with his man-of-the match display against Ajax and he was again looking confident and assured up against the £40m strikeforce of Drogba and Shevchenko.

The competitive nature of this friendly was evident on 25 minutes when Barry brought down Florent Malouda from the back and Drogba pushed the Gers' captain before being roundly booed by the home support.

Apart from the two early opportunities chances in front of goal were few and far between up until the half-hour mark with Terry provided a steadying influence at the back for Chelsea although Darcheville was causing the Englanjd captain a few headaches.

The match looked set to ignite again on 34 minutes when Malouda got a bit of revenge on Ferguson with a late tackle and referee Stuart Dougal had to intervene as several players had words.

While the action on the pitch was heating up the atmosphere in the four stands was tremendous with the Chelsea and Rangers supporters clearly enjoying each others company.

The first-half was to end goalless despite Malouda firing a terrific 25-yard effort inches wide of McGregor's goal on the 42nd minute.

Edited July 28, 2007 by Guest

[MattyC]

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

E-mail William Houston | Read Bio | Latest Columns

July 30, 2007 at 9:10 PM EDT

A new soccer channel with extensive rights to live English Premier League games is set to begin operation in Canada in a matter of days.

Setanta Sports, an international content provider, will launch a Canadian channel in partnership with Rogers Communications.

Roger Hall, chief executive officer of Setanta's international operation, confirmed Monday that the channel will start in “the very short term.â€

Shane O'Rourke, president of Setanta's North American operations, was even more explicit. He said it will be on the air in time for the start of the EPL season on Aug. 11.

“We'll be up and running by the 11th,†he said.

Neither Hall nor O'Rourke would comment on the licensing agreement, but based on Setanta's operations in Britain, Australia and the United States, the Canadian channel will operate as a premium pay service. To subscribe, consumers will pay about $15 a month.

Score Media acquired EPL rights last year. It then flipped the package to Setanta but kept the Sunday 11 a.m. (Eastern) game, which often showcases the best matchup of the week.

The Score has built additional programming around the Sunday morning telecast, including a Friday evening show that will preview the weekend games, a Saturday evening recap of the day's games, and a Sunday morning pregame show.

As well, the Score has retained broadband highlights rights and will stream its Sunday morning telecast.

The third carrier of EPL games will be Rogers Sportsnet. It has bought a Saturday 10 a.m. game from Setanta, but probably won't get first pick from the 10 a.m. slate of matchups.

It didn't hurt Sportsnet in its bid to acquire one game a week that it is owned by Setanta's partner, Rogers.

The bulk of EPL content – a full Saturday schedule, additional telecasts on Sunday and midweek telecasts – will air on Setanta.

O'Rourke says Setanta will provide the most comprehensive EPL Canadian package ever.

Rogers Cable, Cogeco Cable and Bell ExpressVu will carry the channel immediately. Carriage on Shaw Cable, Star Choice and Videotron is expected to take longer.

[ollie]

Good news that Sportsnet will still carry ONE Saturday game. I'll hold off on getting Setanta unless it carries the bulk of Spurs games.

$15 a month is brutal. That had better include more than just Setanta.

[Davey Boy 2.0]

still very pissed about this.

not at all sure what to do

[Davey Boy 2.0]

Guess who wrote this:

Pornography is not what it used to be.

In my youth, porn was mostly photos or films of people in a state of undress, doing 'it' or just sitting there in splendid nakedness. You could purchase under-the-counter specialist magazines for those with rarer tastes but your mainstream porn was by today's standards, fairly innocent stuff.

All the men seemed to have beards and were very hairy, as indeed were the women. This was long before the days of waxing and shaving. Pubic hair was seen as exciting, thrilling even; a forbidden forest of delights. And it was quite normal to see women with substantially hairy armpits in Euro porn. We didn't feel cheated or disgusted sitting in the local Classic cinema watching Emmanuelle films aged 15 just because the participants hadn't had all their bodily hair removed. We were just glad to cop some nudity.

It wasn't uncommon to see people laughing and smiling in 70s porn. The idea was that it was pleasurable. The only muscle on the men was the one which had inspired an Alice Cooper album; the Muscle of Love, and the idea of men looking like body builders with no hair whatsoever would have been considered ridiculous and comical.

Part of the attraction of it, as a teenager, was that they looked like relatively real people, albeit in extraordinary circumstances. The chances of being trapped in a harem of nymphomaniacs somewhere east of Java were very unlikely for a Teesside lad, but it did seem possible that you too, at some point in your life, might also get to have some sort of sexual contact with another human. Well, it'd make a change from the sheep and the shampoo bottles.

Today, porno is typically more like a gynaecological doctor's examination. Does anyone really want to see inside other humans? It's not nice in there. If you're getting off on it, how on earth do you pass by the butchers' window without having to bash one out?

Hair of any kind has now been apparantly outlawed as obnoxious and the sex itself seems part of some kind of vicious, mechanical, aerobics exercise routine performed by people who look like steroid-enhanced freaks. And as for those ludicrous silicon-bloated breasts, does anyone really like them? As you may know, they feel a bit funny as well: like massaging a bag of hard-boiled eggs. Any tit that sticks up in the air when she lies down instead of flopping nicely to one side is not a proper tit in my plain brown wrapper-covered book.

Today, porn is everywhere and has never been more freely available, you come across it (stop sniggering at the back) without even trying. So to attract a paying customer it has become more and more extreme, pandering to ever-more obscure and rare perversions or creating entirely new ones. Nothing is left to the imagination, everything is literally laid bare.

Before you jump to conclusions, no I'm not saying the Premier League is like modern porn - not on the pitch at least. Obviously, in your local five-star hotel after an away win, it may well be different.

However, the football powers-that-be could learn something from the cultural shift in pornography from an occasional and entertaining Friday night dalliance to an omnipresent industry of flesh and fluids.

This season we will have more live football on TV than ever before, if you buy the Setanta and Sky deals, which I suspect we all will. Most weekends there will not be less than four live games and sometimes more. Sky are showing 92 live games - a record number.

Here's my question; how much live football on television can we actually take until we become totally jaded and it loses its appeal? Maybe we've reached that point already. The porno industry has shown what happens when something becomes so readily available. People grow tired of seeing the same old thing. That which used to be special no longer excites. Bill Hicks, a major consumer of pornography in his time, once talked about spending all day masturbating to porno films until 'only air came out'. You can do something too much. Even watching football.

But unlike the porn industry, football can't introduce a horse and insert it into someone's bum in order to show something new or more extreme to attract the numb (and blistered) viewer. Well I suppose it could but the sight of some of our top Premiership stars undergoing equine anal violation would, I'm guessing, not be a ratings winner - or have I misjudged the public mood?

As eager beavers as we are now for the new season to start, it is an eagerness brought on by deprivation from football. How long will it be before we are slumped in front of the fourth live game of the day wondering if Birmingham v Wigan will get our football rocks off; unable to look away but too satiated, and so over-exposed to the game to get really excited about it.

Clearly, the TV people think we will happily consume a vast amount of football and that's why it's such a valuable asset to them and why they pay so much money for it. But can it really go on like this forever? Our summer lust for football is a product of not having seen any domestic football for the best part of three months. It won't last all year will it?

Of course, you can choose to just walk away from TV football, turn off your television and go and do something more interesting instead. But all the TV and radio channels think we won't. They think we can keep on taking it even though by doing so, they may devalue the very product that they paid so much money for in the first place.

But will I be sitting in front of the TV lapping up Sunderland v Spurs, the first Premiership live game of the season? Yes of course I will. The lust, like The Dude, abides.

[ollie]

Guess who wrote this:

I haven't read this yet and I'm already grinning from ear to ear.

[ollie]

Spurs Sign The Brilliant Kevin-Prince Boateng

[MattyC]

Here's some more shite on this.

Setanta Set For EPL Launch

Here's the good news, English soccer fans.

Setanta Sports should be up and running in Canada by Aug. 11. Just in time for the Barclay's Premiership season openers.

Now here's the bad: It'll only be available as a pay-per-view offering at first, with a price of $14.99 per month. And that's only if you're a Rogers Cable or Bell ExpressVu subscriber.

(although Cogeco should be on board in very short order, too).

Shane O'Rourke, the president of Setanta's North American operations, said the PPV price includes “all the live product on our U.S. channel except the Champions League.â€

That doesn't include any studio shows, he added. But viewers will see “a hell of a lot of Premier League and a lot of other things,†including other soccer leagues and some rugby.

Setanta has rights to all EPL matches except the Sunday 11 a.m. ET game, which airs on The Score. It has also cut a deal with Rogers Sportsnet to show the second-choice 10 a.m. game on Saturdays. O'Rourke said every other EPL Saturday match will be available on Setanta Canada, either live or on tape delay.

“Obviously, we're very excited,†he said earlier today from his San Francisco office. “We've got a fabulous Saturday package, and we think people are going to love the product. They've never seen this much Premier League available in Canada.â€

While no carriage agreements are in place with Shaw Cable or Videotron, O'Rourke said both “have shown interest†in Setanta.

While Setanta has applied for a digital channel licence, O'Rourke said only a PPV pack could be put in place for the start of the EPL season. Setanta had hoped to launch in Canada last November, but regulatory wrangling caused a massive delay.

One report today suggested a deal with Rogers Communications paved the way for the launch to finally get the green light.

Details about the placement and purchasing of the PPV channel on the available outlets should be available in the next week.

[Tissue Man]

Does anyone know if this sundays community sheild man u v. chelsea is on tv??

i think this game is usually on a network?

or will i have to go to the georgetown?

[M.O.B.E]

TRICKY TESTS FOR BRITISH CLUBS

Posted 03/08/07 11:46EmailPrintSave

Liverpool must overcome a tricky trip to Toulouse if they are to reach the Champions League group stage.

The Reds, who have won the competition five times and were beaten in last season's final, must face the Ligue 1 side over two legs for a place in the lucrative section of the competition.

Arsenal's first European tie since the departure of talismanic striker Thierry Henry will be a tough one too, against Czech side Sparta Prague.

Scottish champions Celtic face a tough test against Spartak Moscow in their bid to reach the group stage.

Last season's SPL runners-up Rangers will face either 1991 European Cup winners Red Star Belgrade or Estonian side Levadia Tallinn if they overcome FK Zeta in the second qualifying round. They lead 2-0 from the home leg.

The first legs will be played on August 14 and 15, with the return matches taking place on August 28 and 29.

Toulouse reached the Champions League qualifiers by finishing third in Ligue 1 behind champions Lyon and runners-up Marseille.

They are coached by former Bordeaux boss Elie Baup and one of their star players is Sweden striker Johan Elmander, who was a reported target of Manchester City boss Sven-Goran Eriksson and also Lyon. He scored 11 times for the club, including a last-day hat-trick against Bordeaux.

Arsenal's opponents Sparta are the champions of the Czech Republic. Their success last season was their 34th domestic title and they became the first club since the break-up of Czechoslovakia in the early 1990s to win the domestic double.

Their best performance in Europe came in 1992-93, when they reached the semi-final group stage under an old format of the Champions League.

[Davey Boy 2.0]

has everyone googled Chelsea Kit?

[ollie]

Does anyone know if this sundays community sheild man u v. chelsea is on tv??

i think this game is usually on a network?

or will i have to go to the georgetown?

It's on Fox Sports World Canada at 10 AM.

[M.O.B.E]

Rangers start off right with a 3-0 win away to Inverness Caledonian Thistle. The hardest ground in Scotland to play in.

[M.O.B.E]

Im going to have to agree, Terry isnt a very good choise for captain but referee's(even retired ones) have no opinion or should keep it to themselves. Graham Poll especially, is a total arsehole and should just go off quietly into retirement.

TERRY SHOULDN`T BE SKIPPER - POLL

Posted 04/08/07 09:58EmailPrintSave

Former top referee Graham Poll believes the England captaincy should be taken away from John Terry unless the defender shows more respect to officials.

Poll, who retired from the game at the end of last season, had a run-in with Terry when he sent off the Chelsea defender at Tottenham last year.

Terry publicly questioned Poll's explanation for the red card and was subsequently found guilty of improper conduct and fined £10,000 by the Football Association.

Now Poll has called for the 26-year-old to be deposed as England skipper.

In an interview with the Daily Mail to coincide with the serialisation of his autobiography 'Seeing Red', Poll said: "I don't think John Terry should be the England captain.

"Terry had his version of events proven false and then was not big enough to apologise or even acknowledge publicly what he had done.

"You will make your own judgment about whether that behaviour befits an England captain. I know what I think.

"It wasn't conduct becoming of an England captain. JT, have a look at yourself."

[M.O.B.E]

Van Der Saar is the penalty King. Im pretty sure he hasnt ever lost in penalties. Shite game none-the-less.

[Davey Boy 2.0]

shite game indeed from what i saw (last 30 mins of reg + pens)

i think the portugese beat the dutch no pens in the euro tournament that the greeks won (2004?)

[ollie]

Link to a thread over at Digital Forum that seems to have the most up-to-date info on the topic:

Setanta in Canada?