Sky Sports aired the ad during its coverage of the Premier League match between Crystal Palace and Fulham, which featured a bizarre incident on New Year’s Day. At the time, Palace were leading 1-0 with Jean-Philippe Mateta’s first goal in the first half.
But the screen suddenly disappeared from action at Selhurst Park. An entire minute of Sky Sports coverage was devoted to various advertisements for Guinness 0.0, 28 years later, McDonald’s, and Haier.
After a minute of advertising, London activity returned at 47:33. As the half-time whistle blew, various advertisements appeared at the right time.
This strange cut left viewers confused by the mistake. One said: “I didn’t want to watch the last three minutes of Fulham v Palace in the first half anyway.” Another added: “Watching Palace v Fulham but the game is still going on…Sky Sports only cuts out ads.”
Another fan wrote to X: “Sky saw Pino on the ball on the edge of the box and executed an ad break.” A third said: “There was an ad break during the Palace-Fulham match even though the first half wasn’t over yet??”
Another user on The referee initially ended the match after just 85 minutes, even though there was still time to play.
In the second half, Sky Sports resumed normal service, but surprisingly without any advertising. Fulham were trailing in the opening 45 minutes, but Tom Cairney came off the bench to equalize.
“They (Crystal Palace) like compact, low blocks. We know that in the first half they will come for more, but after scoring there are 10 men behind the ball,” said Marco Silva.
“But we have to be patient. Tom Cairney, of course, has given us more quality in terms of decision-making, passing, getting the ball inside faster. That’s why he came on. Once again he showed his quality and his ability. His quality and decision-making are at a very high level.”
“We all know he’s an important player for us even when he’s not playing. He’s there every day to help his teammates.”
