I agree. I bet the OP wasn't expecting comments like yours, just praise, but he/she is wrong. This is totally unnecessary, and is an elegant solution to an nonexistent problem.
You can hardly blame the community for reacting harshly when presented with a product they never asked for claiming that their current experience is somehow broken when it is not.
The worst part is the new UX is sub-standard.
It's expected from a design work a much deeper understanding of the issue at hand (and current practices and conventions)
This design work is not aware of a lot of things in soccer AND TV production.
"Let's make something flat" what does this has to do with soccer: nothing.