One of the biggest matches in the world won't be shown on British TV because of restrictions on broadcasting live fixtures.
Fans are raging after discovering that
Stoke's mammoth clash with Sunderland Barcelona's renewal of the most famous rivalry in world football with Real Madrid has fallen foul of the Saturday midday restrictions on televised matches.
The first Clasico of the season kicks off at 3.15pm British time on Saturday, December 3 - so unless there is an ungodly amount of stoppage time, the whole game will fall between the window in which live football is banned on British TV.
As agreed by the FA, Premier League and Football League, live football cannot be shown on TV anywhere in the UK between 2.45pm and 5.15pm on a Saturday in order to encourage football fans to attend live games at this time.
And that restriction doesn't only apply to games taking part on the British Isles, a fact which has not escaped fans around the country as this isn't the first time that British-based viewers have missed out on some Clasico action.
Unsurprisingly, they didn't take the news too well.
https://twitter.com/ElliotHackney/status/786125213377306627
https://twitter.com/DuncMcKay/status/786118762198028288
https://twitter.com/JoshLegg91/status/786145437518589952
https://twitter.com/w_aneta/status/786147760286343168
https://twitter.com/SYeeles/status/786145984732463104
While La Liga appear to have scheduled the game specifically to cut into the Premier League's share of worldwide viewers, some had a more...eh...creative reason for the clash.
https://twitter.com/BuffaloWills/status/786149541905072128
But where there's a will, there's a way. And that's especially true on the internet.
It didn't take long for would-be-viewers to fashion a pretty straight forward plan to circumvent the broadcasting rules.
https://twitter.com/robbiejdunne/status/786124772468031488
https://twitter.com/Je_suis_Gemeaux/status/786147561992105984
https://twitter.com/_JamesHarold_/status/786134409619578880
