Olyroos vs Cote d’Ivoire to be shown LIVE

The final group match between Australia and the Ivory Coast will be given the coverage it deserves, with the full match being shown live, but it won’t be seen on Channel Seven.

In a stunning about-face Channel Seven has passed the broadcast rights for the Olyroos versus Ivory Coast match over to “Complementary Broadcast Partner” SBS.

If Australia win in Wednesday night’s game they’ll almost certainly progress to the quarter-final stage and thus emulate their feats at the 2004 Athens Games, where they surprised most by making the knockout stages before losing to Iraq.

Seven has been on the receiving end of intense criticism of its Olympic coverage, in particular from football fans suspicious of the network’s motives.

The network has allowed SBS to broadcast Wednesday nights match and many followers of the game have claimed a victory in the belief that Seven has succumbed to public pressure.

Whether or not this is a back-down, there is no doubt this move is a win for common sense and that the SBS coverage should be an improvement on the coverage of the Olyroos we’ve seen so far.

Olyroos vs Cote d’Ivoire
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Live coverage on SBS from 9:45pm

Published on August 12, 2008