More live football than ever before? You're damn right there is
On a marathon Sunday of televised sport, you can watch live football from 11.30am right through until 10 at night – if you have the right package of course
Is there a game on today? Well, yes: 17 of them, in fact. That means there's 25 and a half hours of live football between 11.30am and 10pm. And if you fancy watching them all, there is a way...
Britain's bumper day of sports coverage shows there really is more live football on TV than ever before – if you have Sky Sports and BT Sport, that is.
This Sunday's televised matches start at 11.30am with action from the Dutch Eredivisie, and don't stop until the final whistle blows just before 10pm in Spain in the game between Real Sociedad and Real Madrid. Well, you wouldn't want to feel short-changed by your sports subscription would you?
Broadcasters Sky Sports, BT Sport and Premier Sports all share the day's action. Because of the crossover of matches, at peak times you would need six screens to keep on top of all the action. Which means you'll probably need to get all your TVs hooked up Match of the Day-style, borrow your mate's iPad and dig out that old smartphone to make sure you really miss none of the action.
Remember, this is just a regular weekend in the football season, so why the epic list? It's not like there's any more live Premier League on TV. Just like last season, Sky Sports and BT Sport together will show 154 live Premier League matches this year – more than 40% of all top flight fixtures.
The reason why there is more football than ever before is that both Sky and BT are competing over the relatively niche turf of foreign domestic leagues. Nine different nations are represented on telly today, from Scotland and England to Belgium and Spain.
Sky Sports 5 launched a new channel this season, Sky Sports 5, dedicated to European football. Until the Champions League comes around, that channel needs to be filled by something, which explains why the day begins with a match from the Dutch league. Because clearly no one can call themselves a real football aficionado until they've seen Eindhoven's Flying Dutchman Menphis Depay in the flesh...
Then all you need to do is follow our menu to Sunday's football. Keep all the sports apps you can download on standby for when things get congested in the middle of the day, have a laptop perched away from the crisps, and make sure all the remotes are within diving distance. Are you ready?
