October 18, 2002

Premier League live matches FREE! For the English football fan who resides in the US, it is a personal challenge to enjoy a live match without shelling out the bucks for cable or pay-per-view TV. For the cheapskate fan, our best alternative is Internet radio commentary. You could go via Yahoo's live commentary page but why bother with the unpredictable quality of those links? I've visited every one of the Premier League team sites and present herein, the SpoFi English Premier League (mostly) FREE Internet Radio Commentary List (SEPLFIRCL). See more inside and bookmark it!

posted by worldcup2002 to soccer at 02:55 PM - 14 comments

See what where? Are you being ironic old chap? The club websites which offer free web commentary are to be applauded as many clubs now see match commentary as an opportunity to milk the cash cow that is the modern fan for even more moolah. My own Blues charge 30 odd quid per season for access to a so called premier site which is appalling in quality. It gets you match commentary and you can download videos of the goals, both poor quality though. Last year all that stuff was free. The website itself is very crap all round though. There are alternatives. BBC five live always has a live commentary, so if there is an early kick off or a Monday night match you will get commentary there. It also has summarisers at every game so you get frequent match updates throught he game for all premiership games. While not brilliant it can often be better than the clubs own commentary, which in my experience stream very badly. The opposition may do a webcast. Then is is always local radio, trouble is if the club has a pay site they will probably have banned webcasts from anyone else. Last and least, to be honest, the BBC does a text report on most English games. The Guardian does for some games and is hilarious.

posted by Fat Buddha at 03:21 PM on October 18, 2002

SpoFi English Premier League FREE Internet Radio Commentary List (SEPLFIRCL) All free and easy-to-use unless otherwise noted. P = paid registration (in British pounds)

Those TEAM WORLD for-pay sites are apparently hosted by some company called FLPTV.

posted by worldcup2002 at 03:34 PM on October 18, 2002

Cheers for that, I know which opposition teams I can get commentary from when we are away now. How long did that take you? I am going to nick your hard work mate.

posted by Fat Buddha at 03:42 PM on October 18, 2002

Sigh, I figured the laborious HTML-editing process would allow some other impatient chap to jump in with a comment. Quality, quantity, speed -- you can have one or two, but not all of them at once. ;-) And yes, FB, I'm aware of several live text commentaries:

  • BBC: Written as if by robots. Prefab text makes every event seem like deja vu. Tends to take over and crash browser with auto-updates.
  • Soccernet: A little more character. Efficient, does the job with some humanity. Takes over browser with auto-updates but not as crappily as the Beeb.
  • Guardian: My new favorite. Quirky, lively, often rip-roaringly funny (I think I like Glendenning best.) Best of all, responds to reader emails during the game. I reckon I'll send a shout out to you and BigCalm one of these days. Also, only requires manual refresh so the updates are quick and fuss-free.
These Internet commentaries are especially useful for midweek games, when we in the US are still at work. It's made for some entertaining lunch times.

posted by worldcup2002 at 03:48 PM on October 18, 2002

btw, FB, I'd say the list took about eight hours of work (over several days) which consisted of compiling, testing and ultimately posting the links.

posted by worldcup2002 at 03:55 PM on October 18, 2002

I've been using the Guardian text commentaries to keep up with games for a while now. They are indeed hilarious at times (though I haven't stepped up and e-mailed the commentator). I discovered them during the world cup to follow the games that occurred whilst I was slaving away at work. Some of those commentaries were priceless. Thanks for the links wc2002.

posted by trox at 04:09 PM on October 18, 2002

Now all we need is a live feed for Italian league Series A. Go Roma! Is there one out there? If so, somebody tell me about it.

posted by Bag Man at 05:08 PM on October 18, 2002

To save some hunting, does anyone have a direct link to the Guardian's stuff?

posted by Drood at 05:14 PM on October 18, 2002

Don't worry, guessed the URL and guessed correctly:) Some good writing of the match reports! The England one is really funny! BTW, I'm assuming by free people me free as in FREE? Reason I ask is Fox Sports World show a LOT of good soccer from around the world, and show quite a few EPL games. But then they're not FREE, since I have to pay to get the "extra sports" package on my satellite system.

posted by Drood at 05:43 PM on October 18, 2002

Glendinning and the other guy are destined for great things I reckon. To be able to type that quick is enough, to come up with what they do at the same time is the mark of genius. worldcup2002, there is another West Midlands derby tomorrow (today) Blues v West Brom, the team of salmacis. Their biggest hero of the last ten years Bob Taylor reckons it is the gentle derby, both sets of fans have a mutual admiration forged through suffering. And he has it about right. There will be few words of mutual admiration though. It is a massive game for both of us really, a genuine six pointer, the Villa game is insignificant in comparison. Given the context.

posted by Fat Buddha at 07:53 PM on October 18, 2002

FB: If salmacis were in the SpoFi league, I might have taken the extra time to post about the derby. :-) Anyway, good on the Baggies (right?) and the Blues, who get to enjoy their derby back in the top flight. And Drood: Yeah, when I say free, all those darn links are (as of today) without charge, gratis, pro bono, FREE! But I'm talking RADIO, not TV. If I wanna get it on cable, it's at least $40/month. And that's not counting pay-per-view games like the FA Cup, which are $20 a pop. If I were to go watch a World Cup game at a bar, it'd be $10 just to get in. (Of course, thanks to Telemundo, this year's was FREE!) Even tho some of the clubs have some archived video, live TV will never be free. Hope that's cleared things up. Good luck with the points this week, SpoFi Leaguers!

posted by worldcup2002 at 10:57 PM on October 18, 2002

WC2002 thanks for the links! But pity pity my poor bosses who will now see me slack off at match time :)

posted by elsoltano at 08:50 AM on October 19, 2002

Worldcup2002, I am sat happily listening to WBA radio, ta very much. No registration was required.

posted by Fat Buddha at 08:58 AM on October 19, 2002

Sorry for not being in the fantasy league, but I just don't find them particularly interesting.. I believe that Capital Gold do a lot of commentaries which are streamed over the internet.

posted by salmacis at 07:07 PM on October 20, 2002

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