This afternoon’s game will not be broadcast on TV within the UK or shown on any official legal Internet stream in a number of countries.
The game is being broadcast outside the UK in selected territories, meaning the Club is unable to screen a live stream in the UK, Italy, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands and Korea.
If you live outside these territories the club says you can tune in from 14:55 BST on West Ham’s Facebook page.
Around 30,000 are expected at the London Stadium this afternoon in person with tickets still on sale for the Saturday 3 pm game against Atalanta.
The disappointing news will no doubt drive many UK based West Ham supporters to watch illegal streams often advertised on social media.
There will also likely be a big use of VPN’s (Virtual Private Networks) which allow supporters to fool websites they are in other countries when they are not.
Well, it’ll be West Ham (and all the contracted broadcaster deals) own fault if they cannot provide a reasonably priced/easy to access service for the fans?!
It amazes me in these days of global inter-connectivity that TV rights shoot themselves in the foot, season after season….