Champions League - is it better in the stadium or on the sofa?

It was a chilly day but the atmosphere soon heated up, with a full stadium of some 75,800 fans singing to boost their team’s spirits before kick-off. Touts outside the ground were reportedly asking as much as 1,000 pounds (Bt44,230) per ticket.

That’s a lot of money for 90 minutes of action – even if it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The chances of it being just that are increased by the lack of replays. Most English football stadiums have no big screens, as replays of a controversial decision could lead to pressure from fans on referees. So, blink and you miss it.

Sure enough, when United took the lead early in the second half, confused fans were asking one another who had scored. Those sitting near VIP boxes, which come with TV screens, spontaneously stood up and craned their necks to watch the replays, only to discover it was an own-goal by Sergio Ramos.

Not long after they were on their feet again, but this time it was to scream at Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir for showing Nani a red card after his high challenge on Alvaro Arbeloa in the 56th minute. There was no way that most fans could have seen whether the decision was correct or not, but they reacted spontaneously for their team. 

Of course, controversies like this can only be solved with the help of replays – so watching a match on TV definitely has its advantages.

Those advantages came with an extra bonus for two TrueVisions subscribers last week, when the broadcaster of the Uefa Champions League and Europa League for 2012-2014 in Thailand, took the lucky prize-winning pair along with a group of Thai media to watch Real Madrid beat Manchester United 2-1 at Old Trafford.

Its chief commercial officer Ong-ard Prapakamol said the trip was aimed at boosting awareness among fans that live Champions League action was available through TrueVisions.

Though the operator would lose its English Premier League (EPL) broadcasts from next season, fans could still enjoy watching their favourite superstars and teams from the top eight Europe-qualifying sides in the Premier League table, Ong-ard said.

“Other superb teams in Europe such as Barcelona and Real Madrid are still in the Champions League, so if you ask me whether our subscribers will miss outstanding matches [after the EPL rights expire], I say no.”

Ong-ard said that TrueVisions would shift the focus of its marketing strategy to the Champions League and other European domestic leagues next season. 

“We can take the money we saved [in the EPL bid] and use it to improve our content for subscribers,” he said.

Chulathai Saligupta, TrueVisions director of sport programming, said it had received good feedback from football fans after the first year of Champions League broadcast. The league is getting more popular after Uefa boosted the prize money, he said.

However, the timing of fixtures is seen as a problem, as matches are not played every week and they kick off mid-week and late at night. TrueVisions has plans to counter this with a weekend preview programme to maintain fans’ interest, said Chulathai.

He said fans who missed a Champions League match would be able to watch a rerun via the “on demand” feature, free of charge for Platinum-package subscribers with HD-plus set-top boxes next season.

Last week’s world-stopping clash ended with loud boos directed at officials as they walked the players off the pitch. But United fans obviously retain plenty of love for their former idol Cristiano Ronaldo, who they applauded warmly from the start of the game until the final whistle. And that was despite him trashing the Red Devils’ dream by scoring the winner that secured Madrid a place in the Champions League quarter-finals.

Football fans can be short-sighted, but their memories are long and their hearts deep.