Sky Sports was forced to apologize after experiencing technical problems that disrupted its coverage of the Championship on Saturday afternoon. The broadcaster announced on social media: “Today, we are experiencing technical issues throughout our soccer broadcasts, which is impacting our advertising coverage.”
The three games affected by the disruption were Portsmouth v Leicester City, Derby County v Oxford United and Millwall v QPR. League One and League Two matches will continue to be accessible via Sky Sports and the Sky Sports app. The station was scheduled to broadcast major matches between the second and lower leagues, but due to technical issues the channel had to be changed. Many dissatisfied fans took to social media to voice their dissatisfaction and asked for refunds.
On X, @DingDong_doodle raged, “But you won’t refund your paying customers!”
@CraigSumner9 was equally upset, writing: “Totally useless. You can’t even stream a basic soccer game for a lot of money.”
@ACosmicGrief was one of many people asking for a refund, writing: “Again useless… Should be automatically refunded.” Their comments were echoed by @OwenJBlanch, who added, “Give me my money back then.”
@MichaelS94 said: “As a result, do you think you are entitled to a partial refund this week?”
As @Jackjharcourt raged, there were further problems with the report.
It will be an important fixture for Leicester, away at Portsmouth as they battle to maintain their top-flight status. However, the Foxes have not won in their last five league games and are currently four points out of the safe zone.
On the other hand, if they win Paul Warne’s derby, they will move up to seventh in the table and be within striking distance of making the play-offs.
However, Wrexham still need to slip into the game against Stoke City, as a win would see them leapfrog Derby into that coveted position.
Second-placed Millwall will be hoping to consolidate their place in the top three ahead of Sunday’s game against Ipswich Town and Middlesbrough.
At the top of the table, Coventry City secured promotion to the Premier League for the first time in 25 years following a 1-1 draw with Blackburn Rovers.
A visibly emotional Lampard told Sky Sports after the final whistle:
“We knew we were so close to reaching the goal, but it’s amazing that this club was able to cross the line in this way after 25 years. We’re thrilled to have won automatic promotion as a non-parachute team with three games left.”
