Weak Sky Sports excuse emerges after Everton protest banner ignored live at Liverpool draw at Manchester City
A weak explanation has emerged for why Sky Sports decided not to show the Everton banner which was flown over the Etihad on Saturday (25 November).
A plane carrying a message criticising the Premier League as part of Toffees supporters’ protest at the 10-point penalty imposed on the club had been flown over during the 1-1 draw between Manchester City and Liverpool in the lunchtime kick-of, as it was dark by the time Everton’s home clash with Manchester United came around at day later.
But according to the Liverpool Echo on 27 November the broadcaster chose to ignore the banner because they “wanted to focus on the action on the pitch”.
The Echo notes that the message, organised by the 1878’s fan group, was however mentioned in the Sky Sports match report on their app and website.
It might be tempting to feel that the relationship between the Premier League, as the target of the protest and the subject of the Evertonians’ ire after the international break, and the primary holder of their broadcast rights might have been behind the decision.
But since there has been extensive coverage and discussions of the situation elsewhere on Sky that seems unlikely to be the primary reason.t
However, the excuse that has come out seems barely worthwhile when it would have obviously taken a matter of seconds to show a clip of the plane flying overhead.
Even if it happened to coincide with a particularly dramatic passage of play it could have been shown the next time the ball went out of play, so would hardly have distracted from the action on the pitch.
The 1-1 draw between the two title-chasers was hardly the barnstorming affair that some of their clashes have been in recent seasons, as is so often the case with the early Saturday slot, so arguably the biggest story around the top flight at the moment would likely have justified a brief amount of coverage.
According to the Echo, Sky Sports also failed to show an Amnesty International-organised banner which was flown overhead at the same match, which suggests it is perhaps more likely that they want to discourage a proliferation of hired planes being used for all sorts of messages.
In which case they might as well have just said so, especially at a time when the actual amount of play during 90 minutes has been highlighted by extended stoppage time so there are plenty of gaps to use if necessary.
It’s a major story within Premier League football, and the outstanding charges against Manchester City make it directly relevant to the stadium it occurred at, so it seems fairly weak for the Everton fans’ message to be ignored and then justified with such a flimsy claim.
In other Everton news, the former assistant manager of Leeds United has branded the Toffees’ punishment a disgrace.