Soccer match streamed

Sports club wins lawsuit against pay-TV provider

The footballers had been watching soccer together in the clubhouse.(Bild: VGX Ultra (computergeneriert) – stock.adobe.com)

Is a soccer broadcast by a pay-TV broadcaster in a clubhouse public or not? A lower league soccer club from the Mühlviertel region was confronted with this question, as footballers were "caught" by an inspector. What followed cost the club chairman in particular a lot of time and nerves.

A bizarre incident cost Manuel Schwarzinger, chairman of ASVÖ Lichtenberg, a few sleepless nights. As the "Krone" reported, up to 15 players were still sitting in the clubhouse after the last soccer match of the 2023 fall season when one of them took his private laptop out of the car and connected it to the club's own TV. The reason was a German Bundesliga match that was being broadcast by the pay-TV provider with which the player had a subscription.