DD Sports ruins the FIFA Women's World Cup experience for Indian fans; randomly stops match broadcasts before they're over

THE WORLD CUP comes around only once every four years. So for fans, it's a special time when they huddle in front of the TV and enjoy the best teams in the world give it their all on the field to earn the biggest title in the sport.

But if you are one of those millions of fans who happens to be in India watching the FIFA Women's World Cup on DD Sports, you're fresh out of luck.

Doordarshan Sports, which is a free to air channel and most easily available to viewers throughout the country, has been messing up the FIFA Women's World Cup experience for the fans throughout the competition.

During the group stage, they straight up forgot to show some matches. And things got worse in the knockout stages; when they randomly stopped showing live matches before they were over.

The world-shattering penalty kicks where Sweden knocked out two time defending champions USA? If you were watching on DD Sports, you didn't see it. The quarter final match today where Spain beat Netherlands with a sensational late goal? Again, on DD Sports, you didn't get to see Salma Pralalluelo score one of the most consequential goals in the tournament.

It seems the people in charge of the DD Sports broadcasting desk do not know the first thing about football. They don't know that during knockout stage matches, the game doesn't end after 90 minutes when the scores are level. They don't know that if the scores are the same after 120 minutes, there's supposed to be a penalty shootout.

So they just randomly cut the match feed and show some ancient pre-recorded programme instead, leaving the fans who are watching frustrated at the gargantuan levels of unprofessionalism on display.

This shameful by DD sports not telecast whole match, if you are not want to telecast the full match don't take the free right

— theunknown guy (@the_sportski) August 11, 2023

Popularity of women's football is on the rise worldwide, including in India. But when the broadcaster treats the sport so poorly, it leaves viewers dissatisfied and less likely to tune in the next time there is a match.

When DD Sports announced they would show the matches, it was a moment of hope for Indian football fans who thought the channel's ubiquity would help grow the sport's visibility. But so far, the broadcasters have not been helpful; because they can't seem to figure out the basics of their job, which is broadcasting.

One wonders, would they be so flippantly disrespectful to the sport if it was the men's teams playing?

Thankfully, the Indian fans can still stream the matches on the Fancode platform and Star Sports Select are broadcasting the knockout stage of the tournament as well. Neither has displayed any of the incompetence that has been so frequently shown by Doordarshan. But neither of them are so widely available as DD Sports. This leaves us in a situation where instead of helping the sport grow, the broadcasters are actively damaging it.

Fans who are old enough will remember how DD Sports ruined the viewing experience of the National Football League during the 1990s by missing match schedules and putting on poor quality broadcast; leading to the league never gaining mass popularity. It seems, three decades later, they are still just as bad at their job.

I was like what the heck...how can you suddenly switch to some random recorded stuff when a live WC match's still happening. This is why India's so behind in football. What a shame!

— Leoritz (@NeogiRitika) August 11, 2023

And despite fans pouring their anger and frustration out on social media every time this happens, their complaints are falling on deaf ears.

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