Without seeing Cristiano Ronaldo on television due to a 1960 law

The English demand that the rest of the world tolerate their oddities - driving on the left - as delicious eccentricities that they do not intend to give up.

Unless they discover that those oddities play against them.

Then they will cry out, as sportscaster Jason Burt of

has done this week.

, that it is intolerable that "British fans are treated as second-class citizens." The United Kingdom, along with North Korea, Cuba, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, will be one of the few countries that next Saturday will not be able to see the return of Cristiano Ronaldo, the soccer megastar, to the Premier League with Manchester United after 12 years. It will premiere next Saturday at three in the afternoon (four, Spanish peninsular time), at Old Trafford. The Portuguese returns to the team where his meteoric career began and the first match will be played against Newcastle.

As much as some journalists and fans thunder - others defend the rule against all odds - the most anticipated game in recent years will be banned (at least, live) for English viewers. Strictly apply the rule of the

(blackout)

In the sixties,

Bob Lord

the president of Burnley, a storied club that was one of the first to turn pro, convinced other managers that televised games on Saturdays would hurt small teams. It would be very difficult, he explained, to convince fans to come and support their home team if, for example, a Manchester United-Liverpool was being broadcast at that time. And the finances of those clubs would clearly suffer.

Since then, no Premier or Football League game has been broadcast from 2:45 PM to 5:15 PM (3:45 PM to 6:15 PM). Neither English encounters, nor from anywhere else. In fact,

broadcasts the Spanish La Liga, and it takes 15 minutes to connect when the broadcast match begins at five in the afternoon.

Manchester United-Newcastle on Saturday, Ronaldo's comeback, was scheduled for three in the afternoon, and there has been no time, no will, to reassign time. So fans, or

, respectful of law and order, will be left without seeing the reappearance of the Portuguese legend live on television. They will have to wait to see it delayed, on the

also on

. Or listen to the broadcast over the radio. The BBC has already announced that it plans to dedicate special coverage to the meeting.

It is evident that there will be thousands of people, mostly young people, who will manage to watch a

broadcast of a meeting that the rest of Europe, America and Asia will be able to enjoy. Although UEFA ended up incorporating this rule into its statutes (article 48), only England has used that prerogative to block sports broadcasts for two and a half hours. No other European competition has used a practice that, no matter how well intentioned, has not proven its effectiveness at all. Fans of local clubs usually have a passion that escapes any logic, and they are hardly going to stop going to the field no matter how long Ronaldo steps back on Old Trafford.

Despite all the enthusiasm and attention provoked by Ronaldo's reappearance in the Premier, Manchester United management has not wanted to fight a change in the match time.

It would have annoyed many fans who had their Saturday prepared in advance, annoyed other teams, and above all, it would have opened the door to the first exception of a tradition.

And that, in England, not even Cristiano Ronaldo does.

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