Leeds United supremo and Eleven Sports chairman Andrea Radrizzani has hit out at broadcast rules which meant his sports network had to miss showing the first 15 minutes of Juventus' Serie A game against Chievo Verona on Saturday.
Eleven Sports holds the rights to broadcast Serie A games in the UK and it was unclear whether they would defy the ban to broadcast Juventus' game from its 5pm kick off time.
But Radrizzani's company chose to respect the ban, which meant Eleven Sports viewers missed the first 15 minutes of the game, with the blackout respected across the UK running from 2:45pm until 5:15pm and covering both domestic and foreign games.
The Leeds owner is unhappy with the situation and has accused the blackout of fuelling piracy in the UK.
Radrizzani also believes that the rule is damaging to fans, who wanted to watch Cristiano Ronaldo make his Juventus debut.
The Leeds owner wrote on Twitter: "The black out rule applied to international live events support piracy in the UK as already been proven and I believe it is only damaging fans to watch their favourites champions from around the world (as Cristiano today)."
Radrizzani's Eleven Sports holds the UK rights to a number of leagues following an acquisition drive.
In addition to the rights to show Serie A, Eleven Sports also holds the rights to Spain's La Liga, the Dutch Eredivisie, the Chinese Super League and the Swedish Allsvenskan.
