IFollow can’t allow this to happen again

THE first nine minutes of Huddersfield Town’s defeat to Wigan on Saturday passed me by because of the issues with iFollow, the streaming service used by the majority of Championship clubs.

And I was one of the lucky ones, others didn’t get into the service until over midway through the first half. That is not acceptable on any level.

Just to make clear, this was in no way Huddersfield Town’s fault. iFollow are their own thing entirely separate from the club, and the issue affected other clubs too.

I can tell you that Town threw every available member of staff at helping make sure everyone had their iFollow codes and were able to log in in the days leading up to the game.

But it will be Town and their fellow Championship clubs that cop the flak for this from fans who have no other means of watching their team in action.

Given the financial dire straits that every second-tier club find themselves in, the last thing they need is angry fans on the phone demanding refunds against their season tickets or the £10 per game the service costs. Not having fans in the stadium is already a raw enough deal for clubs without that nightmare unfolding for them.

The worst thing is how predictable teething issues like this were, and that the problems were not ironed out well in advance given they knew to expect hundreds of thousands of extra viewers.

It is also hugely disappointing that there was no provision put in place by the EFL to delay kick-offs in the event of a widespread technical failure of this magnitude, and we hope they are urgently considering implementing such a measure after this debacle.

Fans have a raw enough deal as it is right now without receiving another kicking like this. With a bit of luck, we won’t have a repeat. Fortunately, with Town’s game against Nottingham Forest picked to be shown on Sky Sports on Sunday, Terriers fans will be shielded from any further issues that may occur next week.