Inter Miami’s match at Vissel Kobe on Wednesday will not be broadcast on Apple TV due to a problem with the channel provided by the game’s promoter, MLS said.
The final match of the club’s pre-season tour of Asia was originally set to air on the MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, as were the previous three matches of the tour.
Why Inter Miami game will not stream on Apple TV?
“As with all international matches on Inter Miami CF’s pre-season tour, the production of the match host feed is the responsibility of the promoter,” read an MLS statement provided to Pro Soccer Wire.
“Unfortunately, for the Vissel Kobe match, the local promoters are unable to provide world-class distribution resources in the time frame required to meet our technical needs, which directly affects our ability to produce coverage for MLS Season Pass or the MLS website.”
Soccer Wire has reached out to NSN, the promoter, for comment and this article will be updated if there is a response.
It is currently unclear whether the match at Japan National Stadium in Tokyo, which kicks off at 5:00 ET, will be televised at all.
So far, the club’s tour of Asia has not gone according to plan in several different directions. Miami lost their first match in Saudi Arabia to Al Hilal. They were then thumped 6-0 by Al Nassr in what was supposed to be a Lionel Messi vs Cristiano Ronaldo duel. But Ronaldo missed the game with an injury and Messi only played a few minutes with concerns about “tendon discomfort.”
After the scene shifted to Hong Kong, Miami experienced some success on the court and some turmoil. Although the club beat the Hong Kong side 4-1 at the weekend, the game was marred by fan anger as Messi and Luis Suárez sat out the game.
There had been speculation that the game in Japan could be pulled from the air or even scrapped entirely due to Messi’s injury, but the problems with global revenue had nothing to do with the Argentine superstar’s potential absence.
Before the start of the MLS season, Inter Miami has one final warm-up game: a home date with Messi’s boyhood club Newell’s Old Boys on February 15.
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