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Why beIN Sports will help us love Europe again

Archie Thompson celebrates Melbourne Victory's A-League Grand Final win in 2015. (AAP Image/Joe Castro)
Expert
15th May, 2016
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1885 Reads

If there is any justice in this world, then AAMI Park will be packed tomorrow night for Archie Thompson’s final home game in Melbourne Victory colours.

Victory take on defending K-League champions Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, for whom one-time Melbourne City man Erik Paartalu is currently out of favour and unlikely to feature.

That Paartalu is failing to get a run for Jeonbuk is testament to the strength of the South Korean champions, and Victory will have their work cut out for them against a team which topped Group E in the AFC Champions League group stage.

The stage is set for an old-fashioned shoot-out against one of Asia’s toughest opponents, and Victory fans will hope Thompson can reprise his goal-scoring form from the final group stage game against Gamba Osaka.

As one of Australian football’s biggest stars, Thompson deserves to be sent off in style by an appreciative home crowd.

And although a Round of 16 clash with the 2006 Asian champions shouldn’t really require a massive build-up, Thompson’s extended farewell to his beloved Victory – along with Matthieu Delpierre retiring and Kosta Barbarouses leaving the club – is the sort of grand narrative that helps sell tickets.

If it helps Australian fans take renewed interest in the AFC Champions League, so much the better.

We’ll be watching plenty of Champions League football going forward – though of the European kind – after beIN Sports started broadcasting in High Definition on Fox Sports over the weekend.

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The move was a boon for Australians wanting to watch the very best of European football, with the switch brought forward a day so that fans could watch Barcelona wrap up the La Liga crown.

It’s reminiscent of a time when SBS used to broadcast a host of European leagues on the old World Soccer program on Saturday afternoons.

I used to watch that show religiously, so much so that when I was in my early teens, I honestly thought the Belgian league was one of Europe’s toughest.

It never occurred to me that SBS was showing Belgian football because the likes of Aurelio Vidmar, Paul Okon and later, that man Archie Thompson, were huge stars over there.

Nor did I realise I was often watching games weeks after they had taken place.

I was simply mesmerised by the packed stands at famous old clubs like Standard Liege, Club Brugge and Anderlecht, and I remember my Mum used to make sure to drive me home from playing soccer in time to see Les Murray host World Soccer at 5.30 every Saturday afternoon.

Times have changed, and while SBS no longer shows highlights of the Belgian, Dutch or Portuguese leagues – or basically anything they could get their hands on for free – the introduction of beIN Sports to the Fox Sports line-up means Aussie fans can once again get re-acquainted with Europe.

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And I, for one, am delighted.

I’ve already watched Wolfsburg relegate Mitch Langerak’s hapless Stuttgart in Europe’s most exciting league, the Bundesliga.

I saw the Parc des Princes give departing Paris Saint-Germain star Zlatan Ibrahimovic a fitting send-off in their 4-0 thumping of Nantes.

And I watched a gripping League One play-off at Bradford, where Millwall overcame an early deficit to take a commanding 3-1 lead into the second leg at The Den.

The fact beIN Sports broadcasts English football should come as another blow to Optus, whose grandiose plans to broadcast the Premier League next season already look dead in the water.

There is zero chance I will pay Optus any money next season. If I want to watch English football, I will simply tune in to the Championship or whatever else is showing.

The beIN Sports deal is arguably the best thing to happen to football broadcasting in Australia since Fox Sports won the EPL broadcast rights some 18 years ago.

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Far from watching fewer games next season, many of us will be watching much more football – only this time with a decidedly more European outlook.

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