The LFP are after £15M per season for La Liga coverage, which is why Sky haven't made a deal.

Can't say I blame Sky, to be honest.
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ACF FIORENTINA : FORZA LA VIOLA

Mezz wrote:

The LFP are after £15M per season for La Liga coverage, which is why Sky haven't made a deal. Can't say I blame Sky, to be honest.

The previous deal was for £10m. Yes, the new figure does seem inflated, but I honestly don't give a toss, I just wanna see la liga. If it means that they stop paying the likes of Steve Mclaren, Trevor Francis, Warren Barton and Lauren for their 'expert' views then that's a blessing.
There's talk of ESPN stepping in, but I'm not sure how on earth they'll fit in the coverage together with Serie A and Bundesliga. German footie fans are already complaining that Bundesliga coverage is worse than it was on Setanta because of ESPN's clogged up schedule.

And it seems it is clogged up with re runs and 'best of' programmes.

Was disappointed in the coverage today, no panel and a shit commentator who kept saying "my-sonn" instead of Maicon.
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I like ESPN's coverage in general.

No pre / mid / post bullshit, although 'My-Suun' did get on my tits a little (as did 'Marco' Balotelli), but if ESPN keep their costs down we might just see Serie A on there for the next few years.

Quantity over quality this time around...
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Wot no Barca???  I didn't realise there was a threat of no La Liga coverage.  Surely though Sky will come to an agreement given that Barca and Real now have pretty much all the best players in the world.  And Sky and Real Madrid were made for each other.

I'm with you Zeds.  Taking away La Liga would make Sky far less attractive, but I'd struggle without any cricket.  Hugely entertaining Ashes despite the pretty poor quality and the fact I'd bet on the Aussies...

I'm really pissed off by this. Was looking forward to this season so much. I'd like to think something will be agreed, but not counting on it at this late stage. Worse case scenario, I cut my SKY Sports, save a few quid and follow the goals on Real Madrid TV

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Why not just watch it online?
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ACF FIORENTINA : FORZA LA VIOLA

Online viewing tends to be pot luck on whether you get a good quality picture. I get frustrated at seeing the page forever buffering, and mostly end up turning the damn thing off.

Panic over. Just had an email from SKY saying they have agreed a new 3 year deal. Happy day!

Well thank God for Rupert Murdoch.  Hurrah!

Just looking at Real Madrid's final squad after their summer splurging and to me they still look inadequate at the back,they only have 7 defenders,Ramos,Albiol,Pepe,Metzelder,Marcelo,Garay and Drenthe!baring in mind that Marcelo and Drenthe are there to be exposed badly I still can't see this team making it the latter stages of the CL,and I must say I'm looking forward to them failing!

mikeoneill16 wrote:

Just looking at Real Madrid's final squad after their summer splurging and to me they still look inadequate at the back,they only have 7 defenders,Ramos,Albiol,Pepe,Metzelder,Marcelo,Garay and Drenthe!baring in mind that Marcelo and Drenthe are there to be exposed badly I still can't see this team making it the latter stages of the CL,and I must say I'm looking forward to them failing!

You've missed out Arbeloa.

And Casillas.

Yes Real will be relying on Casillas in much the same way Newcastle relied on Given.
As long as the strike force contnues to score at least one more than the opposition Real should do fine  
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There is no 'ctrl' button on Chuck Norris's computer. Chuck Norris is always in control!

I'll be interested to see how Garay does after his two years out at Racing, he's had a lot of hype.

ForzaFiori wrote:

I'll be interested to see how Garay does after his two years out at Racing, he's had a lot of hype.

Yeah, he had a pretty good season in his first year at Racing, where he grabbed the limelight for his freekicks as much as anything. He was quieter last year though.
I think Madrid will go for Pepe and Albiol as their first choice pairing.

Atletico are a joke.
Maxwell is far better than Abidal.
And that new Ukrainian defender is a bit dodgy.

zeds wrote:

Atletico are a joke. Maxwell is far better than Abidal. And that new Ukrainian defender is a bit dodgy.

As they said - it was an improvement for Atletico on their previous result against Barca last season

Maxwell slots into Barca's way of playing remarkably well. Hopefully Chygrynsky will settle in (sooner rather than later)  and reproduce the form that warranted his services.

        Messi      

The Barca game finished at midnight, and yet the unused subs Puyol , Toure and Abidal were sent onto the pitch for a  training exercise.

Now that's discipline, Mr Guardiola.

Barca scored some nice goals but, odd as it might sound, I thought they played quite poorly, or at least poorly in comparison with last season.  They strangled teams with brilliance and denial of possession last season, but I thought Atletico had plenty of the ball last night and could quite easily have scored 5 themselves.  Nice to see Messi playing a lot better though, although not yet at his best.