In what could be a sign of the end of times, Sky Sports 1 actually decided to dedicate a whole two hours of programming to the FIFA ’16 Interactive World Cup last night.

Thanks to BT Sport buying up the rights to a host of Premier League games, all of the Champion’s League games and a bunch of international games and other leagues, Sky Sports was forced to turn to the next best thing in a week that was bereft of fixtures due to internationals. That next best thing turned out to be FIFA.

In fairness, watching FIFA matches and highlights on YouTube is a fairly big thing as some of the top accounts have over a million subscribers, but actually broadcasting a tournament on television was unheard of – especially on a sports channel – and understandably a lot of people weren’t happy and Twitter went haywire about it.

There’s also some cheeky match analysis include in the first tweet:

Featured Image VIA

Match analysis of a game of FIFA on Sky Sports 1, they're going downhillpic.twitter.com/yh2FcqMWLf

— Jonesy (@FootyAesthete) March 22, 2016

https://twitter.com/TheCricketGeek/status/712402348509949953?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Desperate times during International week on Sky Sports, as we're literally shown games of FIFA being played: pic.twitter.com/aHhUkxpiKC

— Paddy Power (@paddypower) March 22, 2016

https://twitter.com/JoshWoogs/status/712405037847289856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

They're currently showing people playing FIFA on Sky Sports 1 until midnight, this is what BT has done to Sky.

— Nathan Murphy (@nathanmurf) March 22, 2016

https://twitter.com/Ollie_Davis/status/712406824536956929?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Sky Sports 1 are broadcasting people playing FIFA. Sky Sports 1. Are broadcasting. People. Playing. FIFA.

— Seb Patrick (@sebpatrick) March 22, 2016

You can actually bet on the live FIFA finals on Sky Sports 1, I've just lumped on the nerdy looking lad https://t.co/4x7AG7PgjP

— Nathan Murphy (@nathanmurf) March 22, 2016

https://twitter.com/NotoriousBD/status/712411407967506432?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/PuIisic/status/712412372342804480?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Well yeah, I think most of those comments neatly sum up the negative aspects of showing FIFA but when there’s no other option on show and it’s a fairly late slot, I don’t really see the problem with it? Sure, they could show some other sport that has less coverage, but it’s unlikely that any of their regular viewership is really going to enjoy that – it has less coverage for a reason and that’s because it’s not popular – so why not go with FIFA?

Like I said, it’s already big on YouTube and I dare say a lot of people that watch football at the weekend enjoy whipping out the PS4 and playing with their mates, and probably even enjoy watching their mates play each other as well. It’s sad that they can’t show real football, but unfortunately this might be the next best thing, and could even be the future.

I’m actually kind of gutted I missed it to be honest – even though I’m saying it’s a half decent idea, the fact they actually got people in to commentate and analyse the games blows my mind. Would love to hear the kind of crap they came out with about that.

Considering people leave messages like this to their opponents when they lose at FIFA, I think the idea of watching it on TV definitely has legs.