Fans say Jack Grealish gives away that he’s ‘watching on a dodgy fire stick’ after Everton loanee’s social media post

Football fans have joked Everton star Jack Grealish has been using a fire stick to watch their Premier League victory over Fulham on Saturday.

Everton came from a goal down to earn a 2-1 victory at Craven Cottage, following a Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall strike and a Bernd Leno own goal.

On-loan winger Grealish was unavailable for Everton due to stress fracture in his foot, which looks likely to sideline him for the rest of the campaign.

Grealish, however, had been watching along and showed his support by sharing a photo of a television featuring the full-time score and Dewsbury-Hall,

He wrote: Ooooftttt get in there you beauty @kdh_8. Some result that!! UTFT’.

Some fans jokingly claimed that Grealish had been watching the match on a fire stick, due to the match having been subject to the 3pm blackout in which matches are not broadcast.

Grealish posted a photo at full time of him watching coverage of the match, with some fans quickly highlighting that the injured Everton star would have been given access to watch the game

‘Jack Grealish somehow watching today’s Everton game when it wasn’t even on TV,’ one account wrote.

‘He’s going to be the first player banned for watching on a dodgy firestick ffs,’ another fan joked.

A third wrote ‘Definitely using a firestick there Jack.’ 

Several other fans, however, were quick to dismiss the suggestions that Grealish could have used a ‘dodgy’ fire stick in order to watch the match.

They instead suggested that players, like major broadcasters, receive access to watch matches. 

‘Does no one know that players get links for every game to watch?,’ one commented.

‘All the players get access to the Prem games on the Premier League Player App,’ another said.

Another commented: ‘All premier league players have a code to watch premier games…. this is common knowledge has been for at least 10 years probably longer…’

Some fans joked that Grealish had shown he was using a firestick to watch the match

Others pointed out that as a player Grealish was likely to have been given access to watch his team

Around 59 per cent of UK Fire Stick owners admit to using the device to watch streams illegally

The light-hearted comments following Grealish’s post come amid renewed warnings for fans over the use of ‘dodgy’ fire sticks.

Dodgy’ fire sticks allowing viewers to stream sport, films and a huge number of streaming channels without paying the subscription is on the rise and only last month Sky warned of a significant crackdown in partnership with the authorities. 

Most British sports fans think it’s fine to illegally stream live action, according to an industry report that was published in January.

With football rights fragmented across multiple broadcasters, fans could be asked to shell out more than £1,350 each year to watch games on TV when Paramount+ starts broadcasting the Champions League in 2027.

While there are not any official figures for the number of people using ‘dodgy’ Fire Sticks, the estimate nationally is five million.

If someone is found guilty of using illicit device to stream, they could face criminal charges under Section 11 of the 2006 Fraud Act.

Anyone found guilty of such an offence could be fined heavily or face a prison sentence up to five years.

Those who have not distributed illegal Fire Sticks but still use them to avoid paying subscriptions for the likes of Sky and TNT Sport will face less severe action but could still be fined thousands and face up to a year in prison.

Following repeated alerts from the Premier League in recent years, there has been a major focus on tackling illegal streaming in the UK.

Last week, police announced they had arrested four people and seized servers worth £750,000 in a major new development in the war against illegal streaming.