A group of dedicated Scotland fans are reigniting their campaign to see all National matches broadcast on free to air television.
The Hampden collection are re-launching their #oorladsoortelly campaign ahead of Scotland’s world cup play offs in March after their success in a similar endeavour to broadcast the national sides euro play off against Serbia in 2020.
The supporters group managed to persuade Sky Sports to show the match on November 12, 2020, on free to air television after only a few weeks of campaigning, and the results had more than 2.5 million people tuning in to cheer on the boys in blue. It was the most watched Euro 2020 qualification match on Sky Sports.
Now, they aim to do the same ahead of Scotland’s crucial semi-final play off against Ukraine in March which could put Steve Clarke’s men only one win away from reaching their first World Cup since 1998.
READ MORE: Optimistic Scotland fans now able to buy Qatar World Cup tickets as prices revealed
Barry Kirk, Hampden Collection Chief of Communications said: “We understand the tender for the Scotland National Team TV Rights from June 2022 through to 2028 is now out.
“We are campaigning for the terrestrial broadcasters to secure rights for all the Scotland games and show them Live. These TV rights have to be value for money, with millions guaranteed to tune in and watch their heroes play football.
“We want it to be Free-To-Air. We need it to be Free-To-Air. We ask the Tartan Army to get onboard with our #OorLadsOorTelly campaign to convince the terrestrial broadcasters to make this a reality.”
It’s not just the local supporter’s group who are campaigning for free to air matches for Scotland games.
SNP MPs last month expressed their desire for the same result, with Ian Blackford and Gavin Newlands writing directly to the managing director of Sky Sports to plead their case for the semi-final against Ukraine to be free to watch.
READ MORE: SNP urge Sky Sports boss to broadcast games for free
The two MPs told the TV boss: “This would ensure that every Scotland fan has the chance to watch these crucial matches without the need to pay a subscription fee.
“Households are already experiencing mounting bills across the board – they should not be forced to pay to watch this national event.”
Mr Blackford stated: “Anticipation and excitement is building across Scotland ahead of the play-off draw for the Fifa World Cup in Qatar next year.
“Steve Clarke’s team have brought us on a joyous journey that has united the Scottish public in support for these players and their dream of representing Scotland at the World Cup.
“I urge Sky Sports to do the right thing and make these games free-to-air so everyone is able to properly enjoy these huge games.”
The Hampden collection launched their first campaign on October 21 2020 and their work soon gained momentum throughout the country with a national poll showing 92% fans wanted to see their national team on televisions free of charge.
Speaking of the first campaign, Barry Kirk added: “I was getting lots of texts and messages saying, ‘why do I have to listen to this on the radio?’.
“Every game for Scotland’s Men and Women should have the whole nation behind them, and at the moment, only through BBC Alba are we able to follow Scotland’s Women’s National Team.”
“If we want to follow the Men’s National Team, we have to fork out big money to watch them. For me, that is fundamentally wrong.”
Scotland will face Ukraine at Hampden Park on March 24, and a win would set up an away tie with the winner of Wales v Austria on March 29, with the victor of the latter reaching the World Cup finals in Qatar this winter.
Should Scotland games be free to watch on TV?
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel