Weekend TV Preview: 5 - 7 August

Friday 5 August

19.45 Hull City v Blackpool, Championship, Sky Sports 1/HD1

A rare outing for Blackpool's away kit signals the start to the domestic football season in England. Charlie Adam may have gone but the addition of Barry Ferguson and Kevin Phillips (aged 38) from the Birmingham City fire sale should make Holloway's men a tough propostion this season. Hull's signing of Forest pair Dele Adebola (aged 36) and the hypnotic Paul Mckenna would suggest that this might be another season of consolidation for the Tigers.

Saturday 6 August

12.45 AFC Wimbledon v Bristol Rovers, League Two, Sky Sports 2/HD2

Wimbledon are back - it's like a fairtytale! Well it is if the Brothers Grimm wrote about fan ownership and evil club owners. Expect Harry Bassett or Lawrie Sanchez to turn up and talk about the utterly irrelevent days of the Crazy Gang.

12.45 AC Milan v Inter Milan, Supercoppa, ESPN/ESPN HD

Il Scudetto del Communitti, as they don't call in Italy - live from the Bird's Nest Stadium in Beijing. Starting in 1988 these sides have appeared in 16 of the 23 previous Supercoppa's (both appearing eight times, both winning five times - a shared record) but this will be the first time they've faced each other.

17.20 Southampton v Leeds United, Championship, Sky Sports 2/HD2

Southampton will do well to replicate the form Leeds showed in their first season back in the Championship last campaign. What summer signings Leeds have made look more like replacements rather than strengthing their side. Of course the Leeds fans will understand the need to cement their position in the Championship before doing anything silly and over-reaching to get into the Premier League.

Sunday 7 August

12.15 Aberdeen v Celtic, SPL, Sky Sports 1/HD1

Third game in and Aberdeen are still looking for their first win of the season. However, considering they've conceded 23 goals in the last five games against Celtic (scoring just once themselves) you'd be shocked if they posted their first three points here.

13.00 West Ham v Cardiff City, Championship, BBC1/BBC1 HD

The Hammers have certainly made their intentions clear to go straight back up this season under Big Sam - a midfield of Parker, Nolan and Taylor should make hay in the Championship with Carlton Cole filling his boots and probably some and some others besides. For Cardiff, under new manager Malky Mackay, it has to be a question of where the goals are going to come from with Bothroyd gone and seemingly no repeat of the Craig Bellamy loan. Sport on the BBC, who'd have thought?

14.30 Man Utd v Man City, FA Community Shield, Sky Sports 1/HD1/3D

Just what you want to see - a replay of the Cup final, only this time with less to play for.

14.30 FSV Mainz v Bayer Leverkusen, Bundesliga, ESPN/ESPN HD

Isn't it always the way - you sell your star striker and in the first game of the season, he comes back to haunt you. 20 year old Andre Schürrle scored 15 Bundesliga goals last season helping Mainz get to a Europa League spot, and if Stefan Keissling can stay fit and find his form - it could be a potent combination for Leverkeusen.

16.30 Bayern Munich v Borussia Monchengladbach, Bundesliga, ESPN/ESPN HD

This fixture may not have the glamour it had in the seventies but it's still one of the highlights of the Bundesliga. Bayern's summer purchases have underlined their desire to strengthen at the back while up front the loss of Klose to Lazio will go largely unnoticed - especially if Gomez and Mueller continue where they left off. For 'Gladbach, they're just happy to still in the top flight after spending most of last season at the bottom.

Graham