Facebook, FA Cup Making Sports and Social Media History

If you ever get into an argument about what a huge role social media sites are playing in the lives or people all around the globe, simply point to what happened last Friday. For the first time in history, Facebook (News - Alert) boradcasted a live major sporting event, as they stream the action of the FA Cup qualifying round. The match-up will feature Ascot United and Wembley and is being broadcast on the world’s biggest social media hub thanks to a deal between the game’s major sponsor, Budweiser and the Football Association.

 For Budweiser’s part, spokesman Iain Newell told Reuters (News - Alert) that the ability to stream the game on Facebook was a way to take the soccer’s oldest competition and bring it back into the spotlight. 

"The FA Cup started 140 years ago this year and what better way to do demonstrate our commitment than by broadcasting the very first kick to a global audience via Facebook," he said in a short press conference.

While both clubs will receive a small broadcasting fee, the real coup is that their game will be broadcast at all. Played at Ascot racecourse, the two teams who are generally considered to reside at the bottom end of Great Britain’s soccer pyramid will be playing in a stadium that has a maximum capacity of about 1,500 seats. 

The chair of the Ascot team was clearly excited about the news when he spoke to the media saying that it was the, “biggest thing that has ever happened to the club. We had 88 people for a league match last night, but might get 500 or even 800 for Friday's game. The fact millions more might well be watching on Facebook is astonishing. The whole place has gone bananas.”

A spokesman for FA said that there could be more games broadcast on Facebook as no one owns the broadcast rights to the games until the first round stage when a contract between FA, ITV and sports broadcasting giant ESPN (News - Alert) goes into effect.