Hearts-Hibs TV Joke

It’s looking more and more likely that the opening match of the season between Hearts and Hibs will take place on a Monday night.

Because Setanta Sports are adamant that they want to screen both matches involving the Old Firm clubs and the Edinburgh derby, it’s looking like the latter, which is clearly the biggest of those three games, is the one that will have to make way for the others and be moved to the ludicrous Monday night slot of 7.45pm.

Initially the plan was to screen the derby on the Sunday (5th August), but because this will coincide with the Edinburgh Festival Cavalcade (or whatever it’s called!), it was decided that in the interests of safety, that the game should not take place on that day. This is fair enough, but couldn’t Setanta have screened Celtic’s game with Kilmarnock on the Monday night instead? Or maybe just screened the two games rather than the three? I mean, who’s really interested in Caley Thistle V Rangers?!

You might ask why they should prioritise Hearts V Hibs over anyone else, but Edinburgh football fans are sick of being continually snubbed by the TV companies and the authorities. It’s about time that this fixture was given the high profile that it deserves. It’s bad enough that we rarely if ever get the chance of a derby at New Year time these days, but now the ones that we do have are for unsociable, inconvenient times. Could we see this happening with the Glasgow derby? I’m not convinced.

It’s not completely concrete that this is happening yet, but I’d be surprised if anything changes now. Call me a traditionalist with outdated views by all means, but I much preferred the days of going to these games on a Saturday afternoon with the only TV coverage of it being half an hour of highlights in the evening. Even Archie’s commentary back then seemed to be reasonable……..or have I gone too far?!