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The decision by Sky Sports to overlook the Aston Villa-Birmingham City derby has generated a lot of comment on both sides of the city’s footballing divide.

Certainly having been given only 2,000 tickets for the game at Villa Park on Sunday, April 23, thousands of Blues fans seem set to miss out on seeing the first league meeting at the venue since 2010.

That prompted the Birmingham Mail to contact the satellite broadcaster for more information about the choice not to screen a game that kicks off at a TV friendly 12pm.

And we were told: ‘There is still an EFL game to be picked for that weekend, but this hasn’t been decided yet.’

No broadcaster can screen Saturday’s 3pm matches and under normal circumstances Sky have to give five weeks notice for a game to be moved - and that deadline has now passed.

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So with Villa-Blues the only Championship match scheduled for that Sunday it seems to boil down to a straight choice of whether Sky consider showing the derby to be commercially worth their while.

That day they are already covering the Burnley v Manchester United, which kicks off at 2.15pm - and Liverpool v Crystal Palace matches on Sky Sports 1.