The background to this: I am a Sky subscriber, so I receive some TV channels via satellite. However I do not pay for the Sports package since I am generally not interested in that. Tonight's match however is only available on Sky Sports.

Still I wanted to see this game, and I guess i could have done the sensible thing and watch it at the pub, or - crazy me - try to watch it online. After all it's available via the Uefa website. I first visited there 15 minutes before kickoff, which is half an hour ago. Note to self: tell Uefa to update the countdown timer to the event - not everyone lives in the GMT+1 time zone...

No sooner did I hit the page when I am told: "At present this site will only work on Windows machines using Internet Explorer 6 or 7 and Firefox (with some restrictions). It is not compatible with other browsers or operating systems."

So I go ahead and fire up Parallels, booting into Windows XP. 'Half way there' I think to myself, credit card in hand.
Wow, steady, not so quick. This video is not delivered by Uefa, but via the broadcaster which is Sky. So the Uefa site tries to redirect me to a page with the following message:

"Network Error (tcp_error)

A communication error occurred: "" The Web Server may be down, too busy, or experiencing other problems preventing it from responding to requests. You may wish to try again at a later time.

For assistance, contact your network support team. "

Since my network support team wa already at the pub watching the game I tried plan B. Back to OSX and onto sky.com, testing my luck there. After a few page refreshes at the Uefa website I noticed that I needed a sky.com account. I seemed to remember that I had an account there, but not a single combination of any possible usernames and passwords seemed to do the trick. Ok, new account signup it is.

So I started the new account signup at Sky. I got past the first stage which involved title, name and so on including captcha.
NExt page, and we're onto postcode and the last 6 digits of the bank account number I use to pay my Sky subscription. WTF? I enter the correct details but the systems rejects them anyway.
The next option is the Sky viewing card number - I can use that to verify my identity. Nice one. I run downstairs, get the number, back up (this is 15 minutes into the process, kickoff time), enter the card number and... yes, rejected. Can't verify details ... yada yada.

Last option: guest account. Let's do it. The last page asks me for all my address details, DOB, mother's maiden name, favorite porn star, you name it, I entered it.

Submit.

Confirm details.

Next.

"Error:
Unfortunately, an unexpected error has occurred. Please try again."

No I won't and I hope the game sucks.

Clearly I am asking too much. Take my money, let me watch footie. Cannot be done apparently, even with Windows XP up my sleeve. Terrible, terrible experience from start to finish. A non experience. And do they really wonder why online viewing figures aren't what they expected? I see a rough road ahead for the online TV experience. Yes, you absolutely should copy what the BBC is doing. And then do the same for live content. Maybe next year, eh?