BT Sport reveals Champions League return plans
July 29, 2020
BT Sport has announced its plans for ‘Club 2020’ as the UEFA Champions League and Europa League return on August 5th. The finals of both competitions will once again be available for free on YouTube.
Club 2020 will provide fans a knockout tournament featuring 26 games in just 19 days. All games will be broadcast across the BT Sport network with Gary Lineker, Jake Humphrey and James Richardson hosting all the action and support programming live from the BT Sport Studio.
To celebrate the return of European football BT Sport is launching a new show, Club 2020 Daily with James Richardson, which will be broadcast on TV, free on the BT Sport app, online and on the BT Sport YouTube channel. The show investigate the previous night’s action and look ahead to the day’s matches, and the team will also explore the culture around the matches with live chats with Champions League and Europa League legends.
BT Sport will make both finals available for anyone to watch for free on btsport.com, the BT Sport App and BT Sport YouTube page as the biggest games of the year take place. BT Sport will also provide dynamic crowd noise as an option for viewers from the quarter-final stage onwards.
The festival of football kicks off on August 5th, with Manchester United taking on LASK at 8pm live on BT Sport 2HD. The following day both Rangers and Wolves feature, with Rangers looking to overturn a two-goal deficit to Leverkusen on BT Sport 3HD at 5.15pm and on BT Sport 2HD at 7.30pm Wolves will be hoping to use their away goal advantage from the first leg to book their spot in the quarter-finals.
On August 7th, Champions League football returns with two fixtures as Juventus look to overturn a one goal deficit against Lyon on BT Sport 3HD from 7.30pm, while favourites Manchester City take on the most coveted team in the European football as they face Real Madrid over on BT Sport 2 HD at 7.00pm. Chelsea vs Bayern Munich will be broadcast on August 8th from 7pm live on BT Sport 2HD with The Blues looking for a miracle after their 3-0 home defeat to Bayern in February.
The quarter-final stage of the UEFA Champions League will follow the Round of 16 fixtures between August 12th and 15th, with the semi-finals on August 18th before the final showpiece from the Estádio da Luz on August 23rd.
The UEFA Europa League’s Round of 16 second legs will take place on August 5th and 6th August with the quarter-finals following four days later on August 10th and 11th August. The final four will face off in the semi-finals on August 16th before the last two teams in the competition fight it out for the trophy in Lisbon at 7pm on August 21st on BT Sport 2HD.
Simon Green, head of BT Sport said “August is shaping up to be a fantastic month for football fans with a festival of top-class European action. Every game will be available to watch live for BT Sport viewers plus our brand new show, Club 2020 Daily with popular host James Richardson, which will be available to watch for free and will include special on-location features as well as all the latest news, match highlights and topical chat.”
Richard Lewis, YouTube’s head of partnerships, UK, added “For the fifth year running, BT Sport will live stream the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League Finals for free on their YouTube channel for millions of fans to view on their TVs or mobile devices. We are delighted to continue our partnership with BT Sport and extend the opportunity for fans to enjoy one of the most popular annual events on the UK sporting calendar. It’s a great spotlight for BT Sport’s channel which already has a treasure trove of Premier League and UEFA football highlights for fans to enjoy.”