In the UK, football fans will be deprived of Cristiano Ronaldo’s second leg at Manchester United due to a rule prohibiting matches from being shown on Saturday afternoons.

It’s the most sensational summer move to England. Cristiano Ronaldo, who shone with Manchester United between 2003 and 2009, returned to the club with which he won his first Champions League and a Ballon d’Or (2008). Arrived in the final days of the summer transfer window, the Portuguese has yet to play a match for his new club and is expected to make his debut on Saturday at 4pm French time (3pm UK time), in Old Trafford’s Den. against Newcastle.

But this game will not be able to be seen by the British fans. In fact, a standard dating from the 1960s prohibits broadcasters (BT Sport, Sky Sports, Amazon Prime Video) from broadcasting a game on Saturday afternoon between 2:45 p.m. and 5:15 p.m. to preserve the crowds in stadiums.

The game will air in 189 countries, but not the UK.

Due to the pandemic and closed-door matches, the rule was removed during the 2020-2021 season. But she came back this year. The weekend’s match schedule had been set before Cristiano Ronaldo’s arrival and the broadcasters did not ask to move the match. As a result, the match will be legally viewable in the Republic of Ireland and 188 other countries, but not in the UK.

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Cristiano Ronaldo fans will have to settle for radio commentary on BBC 5 Live. To see the match images, they will have to wait for the BBC and Sky Sports broadcasts of the match summary on Saturday night.