Will Anyone Watch United v Barcelona

Barcelona are coming to Scotland and their matches against Dundee United and Hearts are going to be shown live on Setanta.....but nobody is going to see it.

Superstars like Thierry Henry, Ronaldinho, Deco, Samuel Eto'o, Gianluca Zambrotta, Lilian Thuram, Xavi, and Eidur Gudjohnsen are expected to play at least some part in the exhibition game against Dundee United on Thursday night.....but who is going to know?

It will be a match to commemorate 20 years since Dundee United beat the Catalan giants in the quarter-finals of the 1986/87 UEFA Cup at both Tannadice and the Nou Camp….but apart from Dundee United supporters, who will read this in the press?

The reason why nobody will be watching.....Newcastle vs Celtic!!!

Despite the Barcelona-Dundee United match getting a lot of publicity in Scotland, pubs up and down the country are planning to switch over, to watch the Newcastle-Celtic match which is being shown live by Setanta at exactly the same time.

As an Arab based in England, its slightly frustrating, because you would have thought that Barcelona would be the highlight of this Thursday evenings entertainment.....but apparently not!!

All of my locals are putting the Newcastle-Celtic match on, because they didn`t even know Barcelona were playing and feel obliged to show a meaningless English side`s friendly against an Irish club - rather than a glitzy exhibition game between two of Europe`s greatest sides.

The solution?

Well, Virgin Media are giving new subscribers access to all 6 Setanta channels free of charge, but for some reason they don`t want to install Virgin Media in my flat.

I have asked, but they aren`t planning to install Virgin Media into any flats in my area until 2008 - despite the flat directly above me already having it installed!

Instead, I might have to rush out and buy a freeview box, with a top-up tv slot and hope I can manage to get something organised before Thursday.

Otherwise, I`ll be one of the millions of football supporters around the globe who will miss the Barcelona match, because Newcastle-Celtic is on instead.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!