How on earth do you keep up with the Premier League these days?

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patscott_reddit@reddit

Argyle fan checking-in, just brought tickets for Preston next week, went to book the train today and it's 180 bloody quid with a rail card for me and my two teenage boys. I know it's a long way, but that's an expensive day out by any measure!

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jvb1892@reddit

Ye but it’s worth it, best hobby going

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Mammyjam@reddit

Bloody hell, have you ever been to Preston?! They should be paying you £180 to go there

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AerodynamicHandshake@reddit

As you've alluded to, the best way is to be at the match. Failing that, sail the high seas. It's not hard to find, just type the name of this site and "soccer streams" into Google. If you don't fancy that, just wait for match of the day. As a fan of a smaller club, the blackout is beneficial although I'm sure it'll be removed at some point when the TV companies flex their muscles.

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gameofgroans_@reddit

Genuinely interested in why the blackout is beneficial in your opinion? Do you feel like your club gets more attendees?

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Look_Alive@reddit

Speaking as a non-league fan, the midweek attendances drop when it's a Champions League night compared to nights without any football on TV. Whilst I don't think it would be as bad on a Saturday afternoon, I do still think there's be a noticeable drop in attendances if the blackout was removed.

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Ok-Train5382@reddit

The east way around it is just …. Have evening prem games kick off on Saturdays. 3pm can be lower league still and have 5pm and 8pm kick offs in the prem

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ShotInTheBrum@reddit

Im massively against 8pm kick offs. How are fans meant to get home, especially traveling fans. We need them to take public transport for environmental reasons, but kick offs at this time actively discourage it. I'd rather 12.30 kick offs. This also aligns better to the Asian market.

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Ok-Train5382@reddit

12:30 or 8pm I don’t care. Either works for me. Trains tend to run from major cities up until midnight. I’m pretty sure fans can get home like that. Away fans often travel on coaches and can take those. The majority of top flight teams are in London, Manchester or Liverpool. 11/20 to be precise. I don’t think you’ll struggle to get home on public transport after 10pm in those locations.

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ShotInTheBrum@reddit

You maybe be able to get intercity (assuming trains are on time, you can get to the stations etc) but then regional services will be stopped. My local train stations don't have any trains from the local major city after 10.30.

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SuicidalTurnip@reddit

As someone who attends both PL and non-league games I don't really see the benefit much.

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OffMyDave@reddit

Or just pay a US legit streaming service and buy a vpn, set yourself to US. It's such a joke these games are broadcast overseas

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Marcus_2704@reddit

Thats mparlt what I do via IPTV service, £80 a year for every Prem game often jn 4K plus god knows what else and no messing about with ad-infested low quality streams.

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DangerShart@reddit

I've been on the away season tickets waiting list with my club for 4 years now. Absolutely zero chance of me seeing my team legally when they play away and I pay £120 a month for all the sports channels already as well as the cost of a home season ticket. In any other country in the world they can watch every single game for about £20. I get the reasons behind it but I'm not going to watch a lower league team just because my PL team is away that week.

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SweetCryptographer72@reddit

When i was a kid if my team was away we would go to watch a lower league team. It was fantastic and I got to go to all teams in all kind of grounds.

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pajamakitten@reddit

My team used to be lower league and it was great. Now we are in the Premier League and I miss the atmosphere of playing Northampton on a cold Tuesday evening.

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DangerShart@reddit

When I was a kid I also went to all kinds of away grounds, but that's when my team was shit and in the lower divisions. I sometimes will watch the pub team I used to play for but not in the middle of winter when the weather is shit.

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Bearha1r@reddit

I take my lad to the local non league team (8th tier) when our team are away. We get to stand about a foot away from the pitch and hear the tackles thud in, totally different experience.

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Kcufasu@reddit

I'd like to think there can be a compromise where the blackout is kept but all premier league and championship games shown. Obviously away fans need to be consulted on the best timings but 3pm can't be the only reasonable time within a weekend. Many epl games get moved anyway so maybe putting them at 2pm Sunday by default and championship ones earlier on Saturday or something like that

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ThinkAboutThatFor1Se@reddit

That would defeat a he purpose of the black out. If the top two divisions were on TV many wouldn’t attend the lower leagues. The compromise I think will be to allow all games that are not Saturday 3pm to be televised. Including those moved for Europe

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Armodeen@reddit

The solution is to distribute more tv money further down the ladder. It’s utterly ridiculous that you can watch any 3pm game in dozens of countries round the world and not the country they are played in. People pay a *lot* of money for PL games in the UK and are still being forced into watching games via illegal streams.

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ThinkAboutThatFor1Se@reddit

It’s not all about the Premier League. The UK has the largest attendance down the football pyramid in part because of the blackout. For instance if Arsenal are away for a 3pm kick off a load of their fans will watch Dulwich or Peckham play.

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Armodeen@reddit

That’s why I say further down the ladder. The prem and championship already get plenty of money, it needs to go wayyyyyyyyy down the pyramid. All the way down there.

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Clsf99@reddit

I’d even be happy with a compromise where the blackout stays but final score/ soccer Saturday can show the goals as they go in

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AerodynamicHandshake@reddit

> I'd like to think there can be a compromise where the blackout is kept but all premier league and championship games shown. This defeats the whole point. The idea is people will go along to watch their local team rather than sitting there all day watching the top flight.

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wotugonado@reddit

Aye aye all aboard the good ship vpn

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I_ALWAYS_UPVOTE_CATS@reddit

Arrr not a fan o' the game meself but me shipmates always know where to find the booty

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AbjectGovernment1247@reddit

🎶Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me We pillage plunder, we rifle and loot Drink up me hearties, yo ho🎶

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ManfredKerber@reddit

😂😂😂😂😂

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huntforredorktober@reddit

The best things in life arrr free.

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VividDimension5364@reddit

Lucky you. The rest of us have to put up with commentary, pre, mid, and post match waffle.

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Mammyjam@reddit

[Do what you want](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=i8ju_10NkGY)

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Normalscottishperson@reddit

I DONT illegally stream any games at all. It would be awful if I did. Can you imagine if Man City made SLIGHTLY less money. How bad I would feel. Having to look at myself in the mirror each morning. I couldn’t go on. I do pay for Celtic TV though here in Canada. It’s utter shit.

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-TheHumorousOne-@reddit

OP wanted a shoulder to cry on, instead got told to pirate the game haha.

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LethargicOnslaught@reddit

Total Sportek is my go to, just make sure your ad blocker is on.

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Aconite_Eagle@reddit

Yeah its a scandal and a scam. Spend most of my time abroad, and watch football no problem with a cheap 5 euro per month subscription - get all the games. Come to the UK - its like 80 quid a month to get no live games on Saturday 3pm. The reason they give is that they dont want stadiums to empty. Fuck that. If the stadiums empty, maybe lower the ticket price?? But the stadiums wont fucking empty will they because theres absolutely massive demand to watch PL games which is why they get away with looney toon prices, even if they are jacked up by the fact its the only way to actually watch the game without streaming it. Just a sown up cartel of an industry in the UK, taking advantage of a world class product by expoliting it. In fairness, it does mean more money in the PL than in any other league, which protects it as a product, but the average fan doesnt care and we get shafted for it.

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Ok-Train5382@reddit

When they say stadiums will empty it’s for the lower league games at the same time. We know prem games will have attendance but Accrington Stanley won’t. And they make more money from tickets than they do anything else

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jaymatthewbee@reddit

You watch it on Teletext, waiting for the pages to recycle and scores update.

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Krakshotz@reddit

Page 316

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jaymatthewbee@reddit

I thought it was 303?

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Krakshotz@reddit

Early 2000s it was definitely 316, BBC Red Button uses the same code

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Weird-Yesterday5119@reddit

Agree that Premier League licensing is madness. If you have Sky then Soccer Saturday. Otherwise I listen to a lot of podcast content... Guardian Football podcast, Football Daily (quality is mixed) and Football Ramble is also good

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Jose_out@reddit

The blackout is great. Go and watch your local non league side if you can't get a ticket to wham.

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occasionalevergreen@reddit (OP)

my closest non league team is millwall lol

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cantevenmakeafist@reddit

Who are three divisions above non-league.

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occasionalevergreen@reddit (OP)

They're non-premier league, sorry for not reading your mind. I want to see teams who are actually fun to watch, if by non-league you mean "three levels below championship" then jesus christ, I may as well just watch kids in the park.

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Shifty377@reddit

Non-league means non-league mate. I.e. outside of league 2. No mind reading necessary and there's plenty of entertaining football to be had there... You really do struggle to follow-on eh?

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daddywookie@reddit

It’s a different product entirely though right. There is a reason you don’t get 10k turning out to watch AFC Nowhere in the Isthmian League and it isn’t that West Ham are playing Everton on TV. It’s like banning cinema on Saturday nights because everybody should be out watching their local drama group.

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occasionalevergreen@reddit (OP)

Exactly, it’s not a helpful suggestion and I don’t give a shit if somebody wants to be a dickhead because they suggested I watch something else and I thought they meant to watch a different “something else” to the one they meant, it’s all “not what I want to watch” so it’s not a helpful suggestion and it’s not really worth being a smug cunt about it! Sorry I thought “non-league” meant “non-premier league,” who fucking cares.

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Look_Alive@reddit

No one's being a dickhead by suggesting you go to non-league or lower-league football. The whole point of the 3pm blackout is to enable more fans to go to lower-league/non-league games.

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DannyBrownsDoritos@reddit

Depends on how far down you go. Pretty much all clubs in the Conference nowadays are fully professional IIRC.

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Look_Alive@reddit

You're very much underestimating the quality of non-league players there. Even if you don't want to watch them, it's pretty patronising to compare them to kids in a park - the majority of teams 'three levels below Championship' are still professional, earning decent money and get over 1,000 fans each week (some clubs much higher than that). Even going down to a much lower level than the National League, the players would run rings around the average bloke on the street.

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SweetCryptographer72@reddit

Best stick to the prawn sandwiches then. Lower league football is great.

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Domb18@reddit

The championship is the craziest league in football and last years battle to get from Non-League to the football league between Wrexham and Notts County was brilliant.

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lgf92@reddit

People who say lower league football is crap have never enjoyed the spectacle of an absolutely mad first half with all of the players going at it 100% and playing high quality football, followed by a second half of the ball getting hoofed up field and players pulling out of tackles because they're knackered. 99% of all lower league games I've gone to have been like that.

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cantevenmakeafist@reddit

Even the worst of those players will be streets ahead of anyone you see at a decent casual level.

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quizzyrascals@reddit

Get a firestick with iptv, £60 a year

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Notagelding@reddit

Or just p earn how to install kodi

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quizzyrascals@reddit

Easier to just pay the £60 and let someone else fuck around

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Speedbird223@reddit

I’m in the US and it becabe remarkably easy in 2013 when NBC, one of the biggest networks took the rights over. All games were either broadcast live on main channels or shown online for free. No need for fancy TV packages or subscriptions, remarkable, really. It’s become a lot more locked down from about 2018 onwards with their paid streaming service Peacock showing a lot of the games, even title deciders…

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jpaints526@reddit

Man City will win it. That's all you need to know.

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AlGunner@reddit

Someone I know subscribes to Peacock in the US and uses a VPN to say they are over there. Get all games including 3pm kick offs

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No-Photograph3463@reddit

Match of the Day. And via BBC live text. No different to F1, where I refuse to pay for Sky Sports so just see spoilers on social media and catch the highlights if its a good race on Channel 4

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DrSaturn42@reddit

I don’t give a shit because I hate football anyway

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FuckThaLaw@reddit

Don’t forget your sick note for P.E Monday!

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420BoofIt69@reddit

*P*lease *I* understand you *Really* want to watch *A* game or footy or *T* but please it's just *Entertainment*

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Soggy_Future_1461@reddit

Dodgy stick. Sorry officer

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SuperBiggles@reddit

SkySports app, follow the text commentary. Gives you the play by play. You get the goals, assists and gist of what’s going on. Check the stats, see how you’re doing, check the rest of the league. It’s the “lite” version of being able to follow the football of a weekend. I’m a Blackburn fan, a team stuck in the lowly Championship. Even though it is one division lower, the media coverage is dire. So pity poor non-Prem teams who have to do this every week

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imminentmailing463@reddit

I don't feel I need to watch every match to keep up with it. I subscribe to NowTV and watch games on there, which are more often than not the good ones, then watch highlights of other games. That's plenty for me.

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Rekyht@reddit

Most fans would like to watch almost all of their own teams games though.

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HaleEndz@reddit

Yep I have to watch all 19 PL games of Arsenal by any means necessary. Ive been to the first 3 games and with how difficult it is to get tickets and how expensive that is no longer feasible. shiver me timbers settings for me

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macamc1983@reddit

I feel the same. Good to see some sanity here

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occasionalevergreen@reddit (OP)

That's what I wanted to do but there are some months where there's only one game played outside the blackout, I'd rather take my £35 to the local pub. It would be one thing if NowTV was cheap.

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daddywookie@reddit

Same experience here. I paid for Now TV and BT Sport and was still only catching a couple of games a month at most. It just wasn’t good value. When my BT phone contract ended I just let the services lapse without shedding a tear. I’m just waiting for per team subscriptions to be a thing.

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macamc1983@reddit

Pay a friend for their sky go ?

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WrldSIlkrd@reddit

Join us on the high seas, sailor

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pajamakitten@reddit

The pub or the high seas.

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NebulaComplex9199@reddit

I'll pm you a site I use mate. Drop me a message.

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Kcufasu@reddit

Yeah the fact all games aren't shown is ridiculous. And the 3pm blackout isn't even a good excuse when even when they're moved to Sunday because of Thursday night europa games they still don't get shown and most league cup games not being shown at all anywhere in the world seems crazy in 2023. I was lucky that i was able to get a star+ subscription while in south America and still just keep renewing it as only costs about a fiver a month and using vpn's to watch. Some people pay for iptv subscriptions or others just search for streams online but they always seem filled with adverts and junk. The whole thing needs revamping, all games on tv, if they want to krep the 3pm blackout then play all premier league and championship games outside that time so fans still have insentives to go watch local teams

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michaelisnotginger@reddit

It's to maintain good attendance at the lower leagues. And it's worth it

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Geezer_Flip@reddit

Yeah I just don’t pay £40 a year for an IPTV subscription that I haven’t used for the last 3 years

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DarthMaulofDathomir@reddit

Fire stick. You get every game. I'm in the Dominican at the minute and on the FPL app it shows that every single kick off is on paramount + on this side of the world! It's complete bollocks that they can get every match for a little subscription fee and in England if we pay for everything we still miss most games. Get a fire stick.

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About_to_kms@reddit

I mean I can watch any game for free in seconds with an ad blocker and google ;)

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FarroFarro@reddit

Just support your local team

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Listentothemandem@reddit

Part of the reason it’s the “best league in the world”. The only reason it’s the best league in the world is because they pay players the most money. How can they ensure they can continue to pay the highest wages. Rip off the fan at every turn.

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Equivalent_Ad_1054@reddit

I unfortunetly hear all about it at work and see posts on social media.

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Casual_Star@reddit

If your mate has sky and you have bt, swap so you both of you have both. 3 people for prime/bt/sky. That covers all televised games for premier league and European football. Or the most popular option as others have said is to sail the seas. Far cheaper and covers the blackout games. Decent internet needed.

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MaxBulla@reddit

Until clubs bring out TV season tickets illegal streams is the only option. I reckon people would happily pay good money in return for seeing all their team's games. If you are an Arsenal fan Burnley vs Everton on (not so) Super Sunday holds little value, but ALL arsenal games are a must.

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Chance_Ad8803@reddit

Bbc app > notifications > add notifications > choose all PL teams and choose if you wish to have goal score notifications/half time or just full time. I barely get anytime to watch footy these days, but this keeps me up to date. Works well also for transfer news (‘football news’) close to transfer deadline, and for other sports scores too.

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St_Zenith@reddit

I don't, I just watch YT highlights instead.

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Kitchen-Plant664@reddit

I don’t. At all. In anyway. Football can go do one.

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MarquisUprising@reddit

Radio/online

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gfox365@reddit

I've heard there are some naughty people out there that would install a third party app on a fire stick 4K by using developer mode, and then such naughty people could watch broadcast TV streams from every country in the world. This would include the 3pm kick off games. That would be naughty wouldn't it, such dubious characters out there.

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harshnoisebestnoise@reddit

Just pirate everything I go to my teams games home and away and then stream any other game I want to I’d happily pay for all games across all the leagues, but I’m not paying 100 and whatever a month to see a few games a week. It’s dumb

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DannyBrownsDoritos@reddit

Watch Match of the Day and Match of the Day 2 and listen to the Guardian Football Weekly Podcast when the guests don't make me want to stab them.

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detectivebabylegz@reddit

Put your eye patch on and sale the seas. All 3pm Premier League matches are shown in pretty much every other English speaking countries with the usual English commentators.

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FreddieCaine@reddit

Not just English speaking countries, pretty much every country. Apart from the UK obviously, because that would just be insane.

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Mccobsta@reddit

My dad got a iptv sub of a ex cop mate for it he's not been happier since

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SweetCryptographer72@reddit

If you want to watch football, you go to the game. That's it, you support one team and watch that team. Then at 2230 you watch match of the day. On Monday you get the papers and read the write ups. Football should be played at 1500 on a Saturday. Any other time is bullshit unless it's the fa Cup or champions league. I had to give my season ticket up because of too many games I missed due to being played on Monday, Sunday or bloody Friday ffs.

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MDF87@reddit

I just watch the 3PM games on dodgy streaming sites... but yeah, most other countries you can watch every single PL game for insanely cheap! Like you can get a season pass type thing for the equivalent of a few quid a month.

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hooligan_bulldog_18@reddit

Fire stick dude!!! £50 a year... Sack the TV licence.

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00332200@reddit

Amazon doesn't have any football rights

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Fitzular@reddit

He isn't taking about amazon prime, he is talking about Iptv on a for tv stick, £50 a year isn't far off what you'd expect to pay for every channel on earth plus all film and TV

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hooligan_bulldog_18@reddit

☝️

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Grillenium-Falcon@reddit

Funny seeing as they have 20 matches on Prime.

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kylehyde84@reddit

Eye pee tee vee

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Gengus87@reddit

Buy a fire stick, but make sure it’s from a bloke in a pub.

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njb1989@reddit

Match of the day, just watch it on iplayer Sunday morning.

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Mortiis07@reddit

🏴‍☠️

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ProfessionalTrader85@reddit

I have over 100K channels and it shows every game imaginable with multiple streams of the same game with a choice of commentators and pundits and all in English too. Had the service for 5 years now the only thing is you need a good VPN and a good android box. I use an android shield.

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ManofKent1@reddit

AMF

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MaximusSydney@reddit

What is AMF? Google is giving me random answers that don't seem right.

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ManofKent1@reddit

Against Modern Football

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00332200@reddit

Very edgy.

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ManofKent1@reddit

Not particularly when the game was working class and has been stolen. I've been going for 40 years and watched ot happen Half and half scarves Singing sections. Cringe

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00332200@reddit

Hahaha wise up

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ManofKent1@reddit

Yes no karma new account bot

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00332200@reddit

Do you think that all users who join up should have thousands of karma instantly?

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ManofKent1@reddit

No, but I have no interest in interacting with a bot or a possible bot. Have a good one

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terryjuicelawson@reddit

If you want to catch every minute of every match then probably, but just catch up on Match of the Day pretty much.

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macamc1983@reddit

Yep

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RumJackson@reddit

The only thing you can’t do legally is watch the game on the tele. You can find dozens, probably hundreds of streams for a PL fixture. I find them easily enough when Cardiff City play the likes of Ipswich, Hull and Blackpool. West Ham against the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal and Luton will be a doddle. If you want to keep your conscience intact, you can follow the games on the radio or live text updates that BBC/Sky/ESPN/etc all do. Even on Reddit there will be live match threads to follow along with.

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