English Premier League fixtures at the weekend were dominated by anti war slogans, flags and banners
Russian broadcaster Okko Sport was in hot water with some fans at the weekend after inadvertently showing messages in support of Ukraine during its coverage of the Manchester derby. Manchester City ran out comfortable 4-1 winners at the Etihad Stadium in what proved to be a very good entertaining to watch, but some supporters were troubled by the planned shows of support from the Premier League.
Several Russian fans were not best pleased to see so many Ukrainian flags and messages of solidarity on their screens and made their displeasure known on Twitter. The Premier League, like many organisations public and private across the globe, is making an effort to condemn Putin's invasion of his neighbour. Every weekend fixture was preceded by a minute's applause for victims of the conflict, all captains wore blue and yellow armbands and fans across the country made their voices heard with banners and flags in support of Ukraine.
Okko Sport was able to block out some of the messages of solidarity but failed to censor the words "Football Stands Together" which was placed directly under the scoreboard for the duration of the match by the Premier League.
After multiple complaints from viewers, the Russian broadcaster issued an apology and said it was doing all it could to block out what the Russian regime deems Western propaganda. Okko Sport said on Twitter: "In this format, the provider transmits the broadcast to us. We receive such a signal from the supplier. Let's think about how this can be fixed."
Premier League terminates TV rights deal with the Rambler Group
Live streaming platform Okko Sport will no longer need to worry about censoring anti-war messages during its Premier League broadcasts because there won't be any more.
After some deliberation, the Premier League came to the expected decision that it will terminate, effective immediately, its TV rights deal with Russian broadcaster the Rambler Group, the owner of Okko Sport. A meeting of the 20 clubs took just 15 minutes to make the decision. The Rambler Group was in the final year of a three season deal said to be worth $8.2m.
Premier League fixtures will now no longer be shown in Russia, as the FA simultaneously cuts its ties with the nation. This means that no matches from the English top flight or the FA Cup will be shown in the country for the foreseeable future including this Thursday's set of four EPL games and the FA Cup quarter finals later this month.
The league stood firm when organising shows of support for Ukraine under the "Football Stands Together" banner and has now taken its stance a step further by cutting off the Russians from enjoying its product.
It is as yet unknown what will happen to the TV rights deal the Premier League signed with Russia for next season. Match TV, owned by Gazprom, were set to take over and begin broadcasting fixtures from the start of the 2022/23 campaign. That agreement is reportedly worth around $55m and is also currently under review. Depending on how the crisis unfolds in Ukraine, the league may also chose to axe that partnership.
Betting operators like Bet 365, who previously offered English Premier League coverage in the country via live stream at a very reasonable price, are also exiting the Russian market.
Millions of Russian fans will now be forced to use illegal and dangerous live streaming providers if they hope to watch the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea going forward.
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