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For the past week or so there’s been a lot of talk around Cristiano Ronaldo’s second debut for Manchester United.

The match, on Saturday against Newcastle United, won’t be shown live on TV in the UK. That’s because it had been selected as a 3pm kick-off, and due to broadcasting rules there’s no way for any television company to show the match live in the UK.

That situation is widely understood in the UK, even if not everyone agrees with it. The idea is that attendances are protected, mainly for clubs further down the football pyramid.

Over in Spain, an AS column from Aritz Gabilondo has strangely used the situation to have a snipe at Ronaldo.

Titled ‘Difference between Cristiano and Messi…’, the insinuation appears to be that Lionel Messi’s debut in France was ‘treated as a national and global event’, whereas the match hasn’t been moved in the UK for it to be the same.

As such it’s stated Ronaldo’s first match is a ‘minor event’ and this is ‘logical’.

That’s quite some reach from AS, and seemingly a misunderstanding of how the match is actually being seen.