By Declan Warrington
December 9 – Manchester United and Manchester City face the possibility of being overlooked for Channel 5’s coverage of the Europa League.
Both sides exited the Champions League at the group stage and now enter the much-maligned Europa League, of which Channel 5 has the first pick of all fixtures.
However, despite United being England’s best supported club, they are not guaranteed to appear on the channel.
Opposition and kick-off times will be taken into consideration, meaning 4pm kick-offs against lesser-known opposition could be overlooked.
Both sides currently lead the Premier League title race and it is widely expected that they will now concentrate fully on domestic success; Europa League fixtures are usually scheduled for Thursdays, potentially inhibiting either club’s ability to field their strongest side with little time to recover before resuming domestic duty.
It is also thought that United’s back-up – Dimitar Berbatov, Federico Macheda and the da Silva brothers – will not necessarily attract the same level of attention as City’s, who list Kolo Toure, Samir Nasri, Adam Johnson and Gael Clichy amongst theirs.
The Europa League is broadcast by ITV4 and ESPN, as well as Channel 5, and Paul Melvin, of ESPN, said: “Making your selections is more of an art than a science.
“We’re very happy for what it means for our opportunity to cover United and City but we have a lot of top-quality teams.
“We’ve known for a while this is a high-quality competition and this is an opportunity for even greater exposure from it.”
The head of sport for ITV, Niall Sloane, said: “We would have preferred for the two Manchester clubs to be in the Champions League. But it will be good for ITV4’s figures, depending on who we get.”
While City are known to be financially secure, United’s finances have been less certain of late, so any additional loss of revenue would be highly unwelcome.
Contact the writer of this story at zib.l1735579825labto1735579825ofdlr1735579825owedi1735579825sni@n1735579825otgni1735579825rraw.1735579825nalce1735579825d1735579825
Related stories
December 2011: Manchester United set to lose £22 million after Champions League exit