Neil Doncaster has ruled out tomorrow’s Glasgow derby being shown live on free to air television.
In August the SPFL started an exclusive five year contract with Sky Sports with securing the rights to four Glasgow derbies central to the deal.
The closure of pubs across the central belt has denied many fans the opportunity to watch tomorrow’s match with fears that it will encourage supporters to congregate in houses to watch the match.
In midweek opportunist politicians started to ask Sky to show the game free to air, yesterday during her own media conference First Minister Nicola Sturgeon added her voice to that lobby despite showing absolutely no interest in football or football fans since the country went into Lockdown.
Sky Sports haven’t responded to the growing calls to show the match free to air but last night Neil Doncaster explained the stance of the SPFL to Radio Scotland with the Daily Record picking up on his interview:
We saw the comments that the game should be given away for free and we agree with Sky that it wouldn’t be a reasonable thing to ask when they’ve invested so much in the product and in Scottish football.
Ultimately Sky have invested well over £125million for the next four seasons, as well as this season in Scottish football, and they’ve bought the rights on an exclusive basis with a view to people subscribing for their services. I think it’s unreasonable that Sky give those crown jewels away.
As well as Sky Sports subscribers the match will be streamed to Celtic season ticket holders. The other option available is a 24 hour Sky Sports pass from Now TV.
