The 2024/25 Premier League campaign kicked off with a bang on Friday night as Eric Cantona walked off set during coverage of Manchester United vs Fulham. The Frenchman was working as a pundit for the Premier League's direct feed for the opening game of the season. He was set to provide coverage of the match alongside another former Red Devil in Owen Hargreaves.
Cantona was acting strangely throughout the show, though, and it all culminated in him randomly getting up and appearing to walk off of the set after being asked a question about what fans could expect this year. While the Frenchman is known for his outbursts in the past, this felt a little out of left field and it's now been revealed by SPORTbible that the whole situation was a marketing stunt . Joshua Zirkzee was the debut hero as United scraped a late win over Fulham on the opening weekend Cantona was Advertising a Subscription Service Called Showmax Throughout his work in the studio, Cantona was acting quite bizarrely.
First, he was asked to reveal who he thought would finish as the Premier League's top scorer by host Julia Stewart and rather than give an in depth answer, he simply said: "We'll see." Things only got weirder when the presenter asked him what the Premier League season had in store for the millions of fans watching on television. Cantona laughed and replied: "Television.
.." before standing up and removing his microphone.
He then walked off the set, but not before delivering a monologue to the camera. "We call this the beautiful game, but how many people in this world don't even own a television? What of them? How can we sell this [the Premier League] to them? "The game should be everywhere. It cannot be stuck on the wall or just in a bar, no.
It must fly...
No-one should believe the Premier League is ours. This marks the beginning. The revolution has begun.
" The former United man then proceeded to walk off the set and left fans at home baffled by what was going on. It was revealed afterwards, though, that it was all a marketing stunt aimed at advertising Showmax , the online subscription service that holds the rights to show the Premier League in Africa. Cantona Has a History of Wild Antics If any other pundit walked off of set randomly during coverage of a Premier League match, it would be quite shocking, but with Cantona it's not the sort of things fans haven't grown accustomed to.
The former United forward has built a reputation off the back of his incredible talent on the football pitch, but also his wild antics. Whether it's confronting a fan in the stands or a police officer, there was seemingly nothing off the table for Cantona. Despite his outlandish behaviour, he was also one of the best players to ever grace the Premier League and Old Trafford .
He was the perfect person to advertise Showmax as, for a moment, his outburst and walking off of the set all looked genuine and there are few pundits covering football today who have that effect. It was a smart marketing strategy to say the least as it's certainly got fans talking online after the fact..
