Mark Langdon: New EFL TV deal could be the death of 3pm acca

There are some things in football that never seem to change.

Paris St-Germain's players looking crestfallen following another Champions League exit is the default setting with the French club having now lost five of their six semi-finals in Europe's premier club competition after they fluffed their lines (again) as favourites against Borussia Dortmund, while the following night Real Madrid once again performed a Houdini act that felt just as inevitable, even if former Hoffenheim, Hannover, Stoke, Newcastle and Alaves lumpy target-man Joselu, currently on loan from Segunda side Espanyol, was less easy to pick out as the unlikely hero of the hour.

Madrid's latest late show against Bayern Munich reiterated their remarkable ability to fight until the end. I used to think it was luck but you can't be lucky that many times and the European Cup will presumably be lifted for the 15th time when they take on Dortmund at Wembley on June 1.

However, leopards – and football clubs – can change their spots. Bayer Leverkusen were cruelly nicknamed Neverkusen for their inability to win trophies until this season's remarkable push for an invincible treble which continued in dramatic fashion on Thursday thanks to an equaliser against Roma with the last kick of the game to seal their path to the Europa League final.

They have gone from Neverkusen to, er, Neverlusen, and the Roma comeback from two goals down was the 11th time this season when the Bundesliga champions have managed to overturn a deficit in injury-time. They are now just four matches away from one of the greatest campaigns in European football history.

The formerly brittle Bayer have gone through a positive change, but not all modifications are for the better and we might need to wear black armbands for the soon-to-be-death of the 3pm Saturday football accumulator.

It was the bet that got me hooked on football punting having initially been taken on a gateway to betting through my nan's love of backing everything Pat Eddery was riding. I started with the longlist coupon, sucked in by the marketing of guaranteed odds in bold type for being able to pick at least one winner from each section and foolishly tempted by the easy ones at the top before the devilishly difficult 6-4 each of two matchups in Scotland's lower leagues that would be lurking further down.

Thankfully, it didn't take long for a family member to point out the error of my ways and how it was much better for me to select the games I wanted to bet on rather than the bookmakers. Whether the bets were successful in those early days didn't really seem to matter that much and it was a fun way to follow football even if the margins were high and singles not permitted.

Even as that draconian rule disappeared and there were many more markets to bet on there was something still alluring about the 3pm Saturday acca. I know friends who won't put early games in their football bets, taking a Jurgen Klopp-style hatred towards the dreaded Saturday lunchtime start, but soon we won't have many matches left at the traditional time.

From next season, Sky Sports will show 1,000 Football League matches with a promise to feature all 72 clubs at least 20 times with the caveat being those fixtures won't be able to be broadcast at 3pm because of the TV blackout, except for the opening and closing weekends. A traditional weekend will see Sky select live coverage of ten games with the majority moving to the Saturday lunchtime slot and shown on Sky Sports +, the new streaming service, leaving 26 EFL matches for the 3pm slate.

Combine that with Sky getting an increase of up to 100 more live Premier League matches from 2025-26 with the broadcasting boasting "more live games on Fridays and Mondays", and the ability to offer multiple live offerings at 2pm on a Sunday, and it seems fairly obvious the way around the blackout is to simply kill off 3pm kick-offs.

Times have changed. Bet builders are becoming increasingly popular and maybe single-game multiples will be the future with more live matches than ever before, but it will be a sad day if that comes at the expense of the Saturday 3pm acca.

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