With football fans around the world hungry for live games to watch, the Ekstraklasa in Poland is ready to show them.
Germany will lead Europe’s top-ranked leagues to restart on Saturday after the shutdown, and Poland is set to follow on May 29 with a streaming service to reach new viewers as part of an ambitious digital strategy.
The global attention on games in South Korea this month suggests a demand for soccer that returns to play safely during the pandemic.
A successful restart in Poland would also keep it on track to host the Europa League final in Gdansk. It was scheduled for May 27 and UEFA hopes for a late-August date.
Ekstraklasa president Marcin Animucki told the Associated Press he had interest from Germany, Italy, Portugal and parts of Asia to broadcast the 11 rounds of games remaining.
Curious viewers can also join more than 150,000 registered users — mostly exiled Poles in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States — of the Ekstraklasa’s new online platform screening games.
“All we need now is live matches from the stadia,” Animucki said in a telephone interview from Warsaw.
A plan to reach fans on devices that suit them is key for any league competing for attention with big-market rivals and their slew of international broadcast deals.
Ekstraklasa has a YouTube channel showing game highlights, and an OTT (over-the-top) streaming service that is geoblocked only in the Balkans and at home, where the league has its richest-ever deal with a pay-TV broadcaster and state-run TVP.
“In the other international territories we are ready to provide two matches per weekend to TV broadcasters,” Animucki said.
On restart weekend, the headline match is league leader Legia Warsaw’s visit to Lech Poznan, the former club of Poland and Bayern Munich star striker Robert Lewandowski.