Sunday match again!

Yet another match for us that we are not playing at 3:00pm on a Saturday.

This time it’s not because we’ve just had a Europa match on Thursday - or have been chosen for TV broadcast in the UK. No - it’s because the FA has sold the international broadcasting rights for every single FA Cup match from the 3rd round onwards for live broadcast. So to accomodate the 32 matches being played in the 3rd round of the FA Cup, the matches are distributed across 5 days this weekend. There’s a typical limit of 10 matches that an international broadcaster can handle simultaneously so that’s why other matches not broadcast in the UK have been moved.

There was also the added problem that there are 10 London clubs drawn to play their 3rd round matches at home - so that the Metropolitan Police would require these matches to be spread out anyway.

Our FA Cup match against Bristol City is being broadcast live in 156 countries around the world. However, you can watch our match from a legal UK streaming service - but you’re going to have to have an account with a betting company! We don’t advocate sponsorship of football by gambling companies so we won’t publicise them here.

Weat Ham currently sit bottom of the table for home matches played at 3:00pm on a Saturday this season. These are the number of Premier League Saturday 3:00pm home matches played or currently scheduled up until 29th February 2024:

The ‘Magic of the FA Cup’ is not so magical these days.