{"id":84255,"date":"2026-05-23T21:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T21:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/84255\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T21:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T21:24:11","slug":"prime-minister-keir-starmer-urges-tnt-sports-to-make-champions-league-final-free-to-view","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/84255\/","title":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Keir Starmer urges TNT Sports to make Champions League final free to view"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Keir Starmer is first and foremost an Arsenal fan, but he\u2019s also Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. So, regardless of his rooting interest, he wants to make sure everyone gets to watch them potentially win the Champions League.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Arsenal takes on Paris St-Germain in next weekend\u2019s Champions League final and, for the first time since the competition began, it will be behind a paywall in the UK. That led the PM to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/articles\/clypgywjwywo\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">write an open letter to broadcaster TNT Sports<\/a>, urging it to make the service available to viewers in Britain who don\u2019t pay for its service.<\/p>\n<p>TNT Sports, which rebranded from BT Sport following its acquisition by Warner Bros Discovery, previously announced that viewers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/articles\/c98rnme5ly7o\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">would have to subscribe to watch<\/a> the finals of the Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">NEW: Prime Minister and Arsenal fan Keir Starmer writes to TNT Sports asking them to make the Arsenal-PSG Champions League final available free to view.<\/p>\n<p>But he isn\u2019t saying the CL final will be added to listed events list <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ilegYclUVJ\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/ilegYclUVJ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Rob Harris (@RobHarris) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RobHarris\/status\/2058217234938352062?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">May 23, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am a firm believer that the final of this competition should remain free to watch, whether Arsenal have made it or not.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously, I want as many fellow fans as possible to be able to watch our team in this historic final for the first time in 20 years. However, this is bigger than that,\u201d Starmer wrote.\u00a0\u201cThis is about supporters of all teams coming together in living rooms and pubs in every corner of the country to watch the most elite players in Europe battle it out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHard-working people should not have to worry about forking out for a subscription to watch a game of this magnitude.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe should be putting supporters first. That is why I have already encouraged Fifa to do more to make tickets more affordable at this summer\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is also why I want to strongly urge you to reconsider and make the final next Saturday free to watch for the millions of passionate football fans in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For the time being, it doesn\u2019t look like TNT Sports is budging. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/sports\/soccer\/uks-starmer-calls-free-broadcast-champions-league-final-2026-05-23\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">A spokesperson said<\/a> the company was charging \u00a34.99 ($6.70) for a month-long subscription to HBO Max, which would allow \u200bfans to see \u200bthe Champions \u2060League final as well as UEFA\u2019s two other club finals.<\/p>\n<p>Per the spokesperson, the offer \u201crepresents exceptional value.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Six years ago, the UK government rejected a proposal to add the Champions League final to the list of \u201ccrown jewels\u201d events, which would have ensured it would always be free-to-air. If TNT Sports doesn\u2019t budge, Starmer could try to resurrect it to ensure it\u2019s free for everyone in the country to watch.<\/p>\n<p>\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer is first and foremost an Arsenal fan, but he\u2019s also Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[126],"tags":[12387,41056,264,46581,46582],"class_list":["post-84255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-keir-starmer","tag-arsenal","tag-champions-league","tag-keir-starmer","tag-paris-st-germain","tag-tnt-sports-uk"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116626001969518623","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}