Armchair soccer fans saw victory snatched from the jaws of defeat yesterday after TVB signed a deal to screen the rest of this season's FA Cup competition. The station's external affairs controller, Stephen Chan Chi-wan, signed a contract with the UK-based holder of the broadcast rights, Octagon CSI International, to show the remaining seven matches. The last-minute deal includes this weekend's quarter-finals, the semi-finals and the final in May, all of which will be screened live. In Saturday's big match, Arsenal, who are on course for a Champions League, Premiership and FA Cup treble, take on title hopefuls Newcastle United. Sunday night will see a London derby between Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur at midnight on the Chinese channel, while an all-Premiership clash between Middlesbrough and Everton will be broadcast at the same time on the station's English channel. Early on Monday morning, the Chinese channel will screen the match between West Bromwich Albion and Fulham. The games will have both English and Cantonese commentary, Mr Chan said. A month ago, it seemed Hong Kong football fans would face an FA Cup TV blackout for the first time in seven years after the traditional carrier of the event, Cable TV, admitted it could not reach a deal with CSI in time. Octagon CSI's regional sales manager, Ronald Chan, said he was delighted an agreement had finally been reached with TVB after extensive discussion. TVB's Mr Chan said the deal was done at a 'reasonable price', although he declined to reveal the exact figures. Former Hong Kong coach Kwok Ka-ming said the deal was great news for football fans. 'The English FA Cup has a long history in England and is very familiar to Hong Kong viewers,' he said. 'It is a one-off knock out tournament and is always full of surprises and upsets.' 'People love to watch the FA Cup because it is full of excitement, passion and classic games.' The last time TVB broadcast FA Cup matches was in 1995. Since then, Cable TV held the exclusive broadcast rights until January last year, when sports channel ESPN won them. But the matches could not be seen in Hong Kong until April, when, after months of haggling, Cable TV concluded a deal with ESPN Asia to show the closing stages of the tournament. This year ESPN no longer has the rights to the FA Cup. Cable TV negotiated with CSI International for months without result, finally giving up hope of landing the competition last month.
