Thousands of furious football fans have cried foul over CableVision's Saturday afternoon soccer "blackout".

Supporters across Bermuda have bombarded the company's switchboard because they were sick of tuning into English football on Fox Sports World ? only to get American motor racing.

Angry fan Kyle Hunter told television bosses had been pulling the plug on the Premiership for months.

The Manchester United follower gave them the red card, and said it drove him up the wall when NASCAR and Formula One hit the screen instead of his Old Trafford heroes.

"It's a real pain," said the sports editor of The Mid-Ocean News. "You look in the TV guide and its says there's a game on Channel 53, Fox Sports Channel.

"Sometimes you do see a match between 1 and 3 p.m. on Saturday, but it's very rare. Most of the time they cut to Speedvision, Channel 52, which shows car racing 24 hours a day.

"It's been happening for a long time now. I've just given up. Sometimes they will show the team line-ups and pull the plug when the referee blows his whistle to start.

"I guess it's switched off here by CableVision. I can't imagine why Fox would do it in the States, but a lot of people are angry about this."

However, CableVision denied it was to blame and said Fox was responsible for the Bermuda Saturday afternoon soccer blackout.

But there may be hope for disgruntled supporters. A CableVision boss confirmed the company was currently in talks to try and secure another channel to host Premiership action.

And that deal can't come soon enough for a sports fan from Warwick, who called in protest.

The Tottenham Hotspur fan, who asked not to be named, said viewers were probably paying some of the highest cable rates in the world and deserved better value for money.

"A lot of residents are paying exorbitant rates and are not getting a good enough service.

"Every Saturday they black it out and the only reason most men want cable for is football. A lot of people are unhappy."

The 44 year old, who pays about $60 a month for the service, said staff in the CableVision customer service centre had told him they were getting "thousands and thousands" of complaint calls over the issue.

But he said when he spoke to management they seemed to have a "don't care attitude".

Most fans, he added, were not seeing any Premiership action until after 4 p.m., as the 11 a.m. English game is on pay-per view.

Alan Smith, Bermuda CableVision's operations manager, responding to the complaints, said "Fox World blacks out the English Premier League, as they do not authorise it to air in Bermuda.

"Bermuda CableVision is working to try and secure a channel that will allow English Premier League games to air on the island."