According to data from Comcast-owned US cable TV provider USA Network, yesterday’s Liverpool v Manchester City game, screened on Sky in the UK, attracted an estimated 700 million to 750 million viewers worldwide, more than than three times the approximately 220 million estimated global viewers for Super Bowl 60 the same day.
For anyone who wasn’t watching, the mighty City humbled Liverpool at Anfield in a 2-1 win that kept them in touch with league leaders Arsenal, although to be fair even the most optimistic City fan would admit that the ball is very much in the Londoner’s court with 13 games to play.
Even non-football fans might enjoy checking out one of the strangest refereeing decisions in the history of the game, when City’s Rayan Cherki planted an exquisite long-range Goal of the Season contender from his own half into an empty Liverpool net in injury time, only for the referee to pull play back for an earlier foul on City striker Erling Haaland, and dish out a red card to Liverpool’s Dominik Szoboszlai for the foul for denying Haaland a clear goal scoring opportunity, even though Cherki had put the ball in the net.
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It was technically the correct decision, but Gary Neville, a former Manchester United player, lest we forget, who had earlier described the decision as a “kill joy” moment while commentating for Sky, summed it up well on The Gary Neville Podcast: “We know that the referee and the VAR officials have got to the right conclusion, but if you’re in the camp that VAR’s ruining football and VAR takes the joy and entertainment out of the game, that is one of the best bits of evidence that you could possibly want,” he said.
“That was a great football moment where you just got absolute bedlam at the end of a game, players fouling each other, the ball dribbling in the net, a team coming from 1-0 down who have hardly ever won at Anfield and basically gone on to win 3-1.”
By contrast, the Superbowl’s audience seemed more concerned about the apparently controversial decision to have a dark-skinned American and some spiky-haired Americans play as half-time entertainment than anything that was happening on the pitch where, for those who are interested, the Seattle Seahawks beat the New England Patriots by 29-13 in front of a paltry 220m or so.