Why El Clasico not being shown live on TV is all Burnley’s fault… sort of

Many of us might have looked forward to plonking ourselves on the couch this Saturday for a long afternoon of live football.

Sandwiched between Chelsea's trip to Manchester City and Arsenal's game with West Ham was the small matter of El Clasico, with Real Madrid heading to the Camp Nou to face Barcelona. Sadly though, the game isn't being shown live on TV in this part of the world. Kick-off time has been switched to 3.15pm (4.15pm in Spain) so as to maximise viewing figures for the match around the world. As pointed out by Eurosport, this is all (kind of) Burnley's fault. Back in the 1960s, Bob Lord, the club's former chairman successfully persuaded other club owners and the Football Association that televised games on Saturday afternoon would have a negative impact on attendances for English clubs, therefore meaning less money would come through their gates. Legislation was passed and later became a part of the 1996 Broadcasting Act, which stipulates that there should be no live televised football between 2.45 and 5.15 on a Saturday afternoon. Because absolutely nobody on these shores would dream of watching the game on one of those illegal streaming websites, we should point out that the match highlights will be shown on Sky Sports at 5.15.