Does anyone know if the men's friendly soccer match between Canada and Ukraine on October 8 will be televised in Canada? I would love to see that game, but don't see it televised anywhere in Canada. May need to find an online source...

Does anyone know if the men's friendly soccer match between Canada and Ukraine on October 8 will be televised in Canada? I would love to see that game, but don't see it televised anywhere in Canada. May need to find an online source...
I don't know...but Sportsnet did show the last two Canada friendlies; not sure why they wouldn't pick this one--unless there was a special poker game or something.

Well it looks like this Canada - Ukraine friendly game tomorrow afternoon is not going to be broadcast in Canada. It will be shown live in Ukraine on INTER channel. An online web stream can be found at...

http://inter.ua/uk/live

Too bad... so many Ukrainian Canadians interested in this game and Sportnest is choosing to show Mobil One - the Grid; Premier League Darts; Motocross from Kamloops; KO Boxing; UEFA magazine; and EPL World.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong on this, but the way that international soccer rights work is that a network buys a team's home games. So in order top air this game, Sportsnet would have to sign a deal with the Ukrainian Football Association.

Thanks for the link MrGrinch, hope it works!

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong on this, but the way that international soccer rights work is that a network buys a team's home games. So in order top air this game, Sportsnet would have to sign a deal with the Ukrainian Football Association.
You are correct. I believe this was the subject of great angst in England a couple of years ago, when Setanta was buying rights to England away games and charging a fee to watch, while the home games were on a terrestrial channel.

I doubt the interest from Canadian fans would have made it worth while to pay a large fee for a "friendly".

It also caused major problems in the US last summer because Telemundo owns US rights to all Mexico home games. So when they played their World Cup qualifier in Mexico City, Telemundo had exclusive rights to show it in the States, not ESPN and ESPN Deportes. It wasn't even scheduled to air in English until the last minute when an English language broadcast was provided on Mun2, a channel that not many get.

Its also why you will see England home games on PPV here, but most of their away games will probably end up on TSN2.

RAI International is showing Northern Ireland v Italy at 2.45pm. I thought Gol TV had the rights to Italy matches. Maybe that was just for the last round of World Cup qualifying and from here on it's RAI.

Its also why you will see England home games on PPV here, but most of their away games will probably end up on TSN2.



I'm not sure it works for 3rd party broadcasts. I believe that whoever in Canada bought the rights to England games, was able to buy it as a whole package, both home and away games. So a Canadian broadcaster can buy the rights to ALL of another nation's games.

The rights issues are different when it involves broadcasting in the country of one of the participating teams. (If that makes sense)

Just a heads up, the MLS Cup Final from Toronto is this Sunday at 8:30pm ET on TSN2. It is an ESPN production with Ian Darke as commentator alongside co-commentator John Harkes. The studio will consist of Max Bretos, Alexi Lalas and Steve McManaman.

So, while the game isn't very exciting, at least ESPN is putting their top commentator (and former Sky Sports #2) Ian Darke on it.

BTW, for those wondering, since Darke will be in Toronto, Adrian Healey will take over for him on Premier League duties and call the North London Derby on Saturday morning.

BTW, for those wondering, since Darke will be in Toronto, Adrian Healey will take over for him on Premier League duties and call the North London Derby on Saturday morning.

Thank God Darke isn't doing the Premiership game. He is absolutely useless as a commentator and should have stuck to boxing, as he knows sod all about footie!!

I'm very disappointed TSN or TSN2 isn't picking up the Bremen-Inter game on Tuesday.

Yes it is a little surprising that TSN2 is showing Barcelona v Rubin Kazan instead of Bremen v Inter, which could determine who wins the group, but Barcelona and Bremen have nothing to play for so they could both be dull.

Not so sure it was surprising. It was expected that Inter would field a "weakened" team, which they did. Bremen were playing for pride. But more importantly, Barcelona are a huge draw and are very much the "team of the moment" right now. I'm sure that no matter who they were playing, they would outdraw Bremen v Inter, especially when you factor in that Man United and Tottenham were also in action, which would dilute the audience even further.