Television sets all over Washington will be tuned into the game of the year at 11 a.m. on Sunday as Fox Soccer Channel will broadcast Manchester United vs. Chelsea. Manchester United (21-4-10, 73 points) leads Chelsea (21-7-7, 70 points) by three points. A Manchester United win all but clinches its 12th Premiership title. A Chelsea win will pull Chelsea even on points and give it the advantage in goal differential. A tie retains Manchester United’s three-point lead with two Premier League matches left to play for both teams.
This is the type of games that broadcast executives dream about, two high-profile teams playing head to head for a title. On Wednesday, I spoke to David Nathanson the Executive Vice President and General Manager of Fox Soccer. He was speaking to me from the control room in Los Angeles just before the game on FX featuring Manchester United and Schalke.
We talked about the network’s continuing commitment to soccer programming and how it has paid off for them.
Nathanson on the events of the past couple of weeks » “We have aired on both Fox Soccer Channel and FX the UEFA Champions semi finals that produced a FC Barcelona and Manchester United final May 28th live from Wembley Stadium. For the second straight year the game will air nationally on Fox and the ratings for the UEFA Champions League all season have been outstanding so you can imagine what this year’s game will do with two of soccer’s top powers facing off at Wembley it just does not get better than that.”
Nathanson on Sunday’s big game » “Well we had Manchester United on FX Thursday as the clinched a spot in the UEFA Final by beating German powerhouse Schalke 4-1. Now we get them facing their arch rival just three days later and make no mistake about it, we have plenty of Chelsea fans as well so this will be a great game for all soccer fans with the Premiership title on the line.”
Nathanson on the commitment to the MLS » “There is no doubt that our extensive commitment to European soccer has helped drive interest in the MLS. We really feel that while fans love our international product they love to go out and watch the MLS in person and we have really invested a great deal of money and production effort in our new Soccer Night In America. All remaining Friday and Saturday night MLS games on Fox Soccer come under the Soccer Night In America banner and will have all the bells and whistles that fans of Fox Sports have come to expect of our productions.”
Examiner columnist Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this!
