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There are four Premier League games kicking off at 3pm today all of which will be available to watch overseas. None, of course, will be screened live here. This will continue to be the case up until 2030 at least under the terms of the league\u2019s \u00a36.7bn broadcast deal extension announced this week which maintains the sanctity of the Saturday 3pm blackout.<\/p>\n
Nowhere else in Europe\u2019s major leagues is this a thing. It is a peculiarly English – and Scottish – phenomenon.<\/p>\n
While 25 per cent more matches will be shown live domestically – predominantly by Sky – under the new TV arrangements the no-go zone driven through by the Burnley chairman Bob Lord almost 60 years ago will be maintained.<\/p>\n
The English game and the broadcast landscape may be unrecognisable from that era – club chairs don\u2019t tend to be the local butcher anymore – but Bob Chop\u2019s law still applies. It was relaxed during Covid, when no-one was allowed into grounds, but as soon as crowds returned so did the blackout.<\/p>\n
It is as much a part of the English football landscape as the pie and the programme. It is so ingrained that not even the all-powerful Premier League dares challenge the blackout. What then of Karen Carney\u2019s bold plan to banish it?<\/p>\n
One of the most eye-catching tenets of the former England international\u2019s review to raise standards in club football is the recommendation to hijack the Saturday 3pm slot and use it as the shop window for the women\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: <\/strong> Nottingham Forest ‘banish’ duo from training and transfer list them[LATEST] <\/strong><\/p>\n Carney envisages a live Women\u2019s Super League match in that slot every weekend instead of the current 11.30am Saturday or 6.45pm Sunday windows – neither of which are particularly conducive to attracting armchair – or match-going – fans.<\/p>\n It is an excellent idea, a forward-thinking approach which would offer a chance to boost broadcast and sponsorship revenue as well as putting the product in front of more eyeballs. However Carney\u2019s scheme requires an exemption from Article 48 of UEFA\u2019s statutes which would need the blessing of the Premier League and the EFL.<\/p>\n Neither of those two organisations knowingly does much that is not directly in their own interests. There will be elements within those bodies thinking: \u2018well if we can\u2019t do it, why should the women be allowed to?\u2019<\/p>\n Where do we start with that? The gentleman of the FA\u2019s ban on women\u2019s football being played at professional grounds which lasted until 1970, perhaps? The long years of struggle for women\u2019s football to be taken seriously rather than ridiculed since? The second-class citizenship which even now is part of the football fabric?<\/p>\n The boys owe the girls this opportunity. The argument for keeping the blackout in place has always been as a protection mechanism for clubs lower down the pyramid. If there is a top-level match on TV, fewer fans will make the effort to go and support their local grass-roots club.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/67\/590x\/secondary\/Karen-Carney-womens-football-5104745.jpg?r=1701981010699\")
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