Christmas has arrived early thanks to Fox Soccer Channel with the exclusive news that the knockout stages of the Champions League on FSC and FSN, as well as the final on FX, will feature the two-person commentary teams from Sky Sports instead of the UEFA/international commentary teams.

Some of you observant Fox Soccer Channel viewers may have noticed that Martin Tyler and Andy Gray commentated the Wolfsburg against Manchester United game earlier this week, while Alan Parry and Don Goodman were behind the mics for the Olympiakos against Arsenal match. That’s just a taste of the top-notch commentary you can expect to hear for the remainder of the Champions League season.

This is brilliant news. The quantity and quality of Champions League coverage Fox Soccer Channel has provided so far this season has been exemplary, but the only disappointment has been the abysmal commentating provided by UEFA’s team of commentators ran by Tim White Media Consultancy. The commentating has been so woeful that Tim White and his colleagues have become a running joke on EPL Talk.

Thankfully, Fox has corrected the issue by replacing the feed with the commentator feed directly from Sky Sports which features some of the best experts in the world such as Tyler, Gray, Parry, Ian Darke and many others.

A big thank you to Fox Soccer Channel for listening to its viewers and making the wise decision. Au revoir Tim White. Bienvenue Sky Sports.

If Alan Parry thinks refereeing is so easy, let’s see him be the man in black next week.

Football commentators sometimes stoke the fire by criticizing referees, which makes the TV viewers get emotional and forces undue pressure on referees, as well as countless subsequent articles in the press and people moaning on football radio shows.

Even worse is when referees get a crucial decision correct, such as the disallowed Bolton goal against Liverpool today. Alan Parry got it wrong claiming that Bolton goal should have been allowed. Parry must have missed the way Kevin Nolan manhandled Jose Pepe Reina and locked his arms around the Liverpool keeper before Gary Cahill nodded the ball into the Liverpool net. Even co-commentator Nigel Winterburn missed the foul too. Watch the video of the incident to help you make your own decision.

Worse still, Parry kept on claiming how Bolton were cheated of a goal and continued to criticize Rob Styles, an easy target for Parry.

Just as referees make mistakes, commentators need to be held accountable for their remarks too. Commentators often call for technology being introduced into the game, but it’s hypocritical when commentators, even with all of the technology available to them on TV, are unable to make correct calls too.

An interesting subplot to this story is that Alan Parry is a Liverpool supporter who has been criticized in the past by many TV viewers for being too biased toward Liverpool. As a result, Parry rarely commentates any games involving Liverpool on Sky television. Today’s Bolton against Liverpool match was on TWI, the international feed for football fans around the world.

Is it possible that Parry has been so concerned with his perceived bias against Liverpool that he is subconsciously trying too hard to be unbiased? And in doing so, he ends up being more biased against Liverpool. Or was it a simple mistake on his behalf?

As for Liverpool, they continue to look like true Premier League title contenders after scoring two sublime goals to win 2-0. The final score could have been at least 4-0 to Liverpool after several players missed easy changes in front of goal. Bolton, meanwhile, have a long season ahead of them if they want to elude relegation.