Best online resource for soccer/football to keep up with Premier matches, goals and highlights, plus video?

October 6, 2007 11:07 AM

What's the best online resource for soccer/football to keep up with matches, goals and highlights, plus video?

I have a TV, but no channels. I live in the US. I'm getting back into soccer after some years out of the loop. I honestly don't have time to watch a lot of full games, but love highlights, esp Premier League. Currently, I only keep up with goals and highlights by searching YouTube, but this doesn't always provide much context. I've found a ton of other goal-compilation sites, but they're all overwhelmed by obtrusive advertising. Plus I want to see more than just goals.

What I'd prefer ideally is a well-written and well-organized magazine-style soccer portal with daily updates on matches and standings with, most importantly, video footage - does such a thing exist? If not exactly that, what are considered the best resources to get my fix? The actual Premier site is close, but I'm not getting enough video.

posted by deern the headlice to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (11 answers total)

Here is what you need for the Champions League. I'm not sure such a thing exists for the Premiership. UK citizens can sometimes get onling highlights via the BBC site, but these matches are sold around the world for millions of pounds - you won't legally see them being put online for your convenience free of charge. Youtube is probably your best bet if you need footage, but that's still illegal footage that will be hard to find, captured from foreign streams and probably pulled before long.
posted by fire&wings at 11:28 AM on October 6, 2007

Best answer: This is not particularly kosher, but Match of the Day ends up on BitTorrent within hours of broadcast in the UK.

See, the Premier League wants to screw as much money out of international rights as possible, which means you're just not going to get good stuff for free. Fox Soccer Channel has an online highlights package, which I've frankly never seen. Then there's Setanta Broadband at $11.99/month, but that's focused on the live matches to which Setanta has the rights.
posted by holgate at 11:33 AM on October 6, 2007

You can watch live video feeds of most big European games at goaltube. I watched the Celtic Vs AC Milan game with no problems. For some of the games you need to download Sopcast - I don't know if there are any spyware issues with it or not. If you are going to download it then do it from here as as far as download speeds are concerned Sopcast servers appear to be two parallel Texas Instruments calculators. And by parallel I mean gaffer taped together.
posted by oh pollo! at 11:37 AM on October 6, 2007

I suspect that most of the Premiership teams own most of the online rights to their own matches. Certainly, Liverpool have subscription service where amongst other things they let you view match highlights.
As mentioned above, your best option to see extended coverage is probably file sharing.
Ignoring the video requirement, personally I enjoy the Guardian football site. complete with twice-weekly podcast.
posted by demagnetized at 11:49 AM on October 6, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks guys, checking out UEFA's pay-per-game subscription now, although like SopCast, I never have time to watch whole games.

but these matches are sold around the world for millions of pounds - you won't legally see them being put online for your convenience free of charge.

See, the Premier League wants to screw as much money out of international rights as possible, which means you're just not going to get good stuff for free.

Sad news, and sad I didn't already know it. I had thought at least some of that YouTube footage was properly endorsed.
posted by deern the headlice at 2:12 PM on October 6, 2007

i don't particularly like it, but i find myself going to the BBC more often than not for footie news. It's just the easiest.
posted by buka at 2:14 PM on October 6, 2007

The Premier League is suing YouTube (2 MB PDF) to get that material taken down.

Football 365 is a good and irreverent site with a humourous slant. Gives you a feel for the context of the game and the fans' perspectives, not just match reports. But not a lot of video.

I'd agree with the recommendation for Match of the Day. It meets your needs pretty well.
posted by Infinite Jest at 4:28 PM on October 6, 2007

Best answer: These are not exactly the video+ sites you're after, but for highlight clips only I visit...
EPL
Champions League
Euro 2008
Also check out this site if you're an Arsenal fan...

I read the Independent's football section which seems pretty thorough...

You might also visit this site for schedules and instructions for watching matches online live. Which is pretty sweet...or so I've heard.
posted by jethrographic at 5:11 PM on October 6, 2007

Response by poster: So far UCLclips has the best game summaries (10 min or so), video-wise. Perfect.
posted by deern the headlice at 8:44 PM on October 6, 2007

TheOffside and Whoateallthepies. Not exhaustive, but both are entertaining sites with lots of irreverent stuff and video clips as well.
posted by philad at 11:50 PM on October 6, 2007

Best answer: Try this link.
posted by fire&wings at 5:11 AM on October 7, 2007