Cristiano Ronaldo, you night have heard, has a new club
After a nine years, four Ballon d’Ors and God-knows-how-many shirtless goal celebrations, the 33-year-old finally called time on his spell at Real Madrid, sealing an £88m switch to Juventus last month.
The Portugal captain is set to make his bow for the Italian champions on August 18 against Chievo – a game which will be free to watch for UK-based football fans. Free football, eh? What’s not to love?
Thanks to a revolutionary deal, all that’s required to see the game is a Facebook account.
The social network agreed a partnership with Eleven Sports, who have exclusive UK broadcast rights for both Serie A and La Liga this season. As part of the deal, they will allow football fans to stream at least one game a week completely free of charge.
Their first offering from the Italian top flight just so happens to be Ronaldo’s Juve debut, while their Spanish coverage begins a day earlier with Girona playing Valladolid on the Friday night.
“By making Facebook our free-to-air partner, we are giving our leading content centre stage projection, opening it up to new and diverse audiences, and confirming again our innovative leadership in the global sports media industry,” said Danny Menken, Group Managing Director, Eleven Sports.
“In all our global markets we want to be where the fans are. We aim to serve fan communities and develop interaction and engagement around our content, while ensuring we are always accessible and easy to reach.
“Our unique free-to-air partnership with Facebook helps us to do this as part of our fresh and contemporary approach to distribution.”
Eleven Sports launches on August 9. They have recently announced their subscription package which starts at £5.99 per month.
