bradley headstone
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Posted: August 19th 2008
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Terrestrial Broadcasters BBC and ITV recently treated us to a wonderful Football tournament. They didn’t necessarily make it wonderful but at least we could all see it.
I’m not against paying for football, I subscribe to Sky Sports and up until this season I’ve enjoyed being able to tune in and, more often than not, tune out whenever I wanted.
Tonight I’ll be missing an England game for the first time in years. Setanta now have the rights to England fixtures. Fair enough they paid for them why not. I won’t be joining them though.
You have to draw a line somewhere and this is mine. I won’t be missing a feast of entertainment, England games are not about that, but I will miss the collective agony of a million households up and down the land as Gerrard and Lampard run in to each other or Terry fails with a 5 yard raking pass to Cole. *
I bet I’m not alone.
I’ve also recently missed the whole of the Olympic Football tournament. This was free, albeit on BBC3, but not even Argentina and Brazil could tempt me. Maybe I’m just Olympic-ed out? Worn down by endless Gold from the Lake and the Velodrome.
Maybe, more likely is BBC commentator fatigue, their relentless jingoistic chatter and insipid banter has become too much. One man stands out above the rest though. Jonathan Overend, this is the BBC’s tennis correspondent, Arch-Henman defender and quite frankly a dick! His shouting at the Chinese opponents of the brave British Badminton duo was a new low in sports broadcasting…their crime…they contested a point?
Slightly more edifying is the Beeb utilising all their resources by sending every sports correspondent they have…no matter what their speciality. Eddie Butler their mellifluous Rugby Man (surely he’s not a Brummie? I thought only Brummies had mellifluous tones as in “Adrian Chiles’ mellifluous tones”... – Ed) was particularly entertaining in the Archery (you try commentating on it for an hour!) and Radio Football commentator John Murray’s attempt at Table Tennis commentary was remarkable.
I’m glad we’ve done well, but as our Brave England Footballers will surely prove tonight, the real times are just around the corner. I fully expect a return to our usual Olympic name Great Britainfourth!
*Ed’s post-match note...allegedly the FA took delight in removing England rights from the Beeb as they felt Lineker and co were too remorselessly negative...wonder what they made of the ITV mob ripping the team to pieces tonight in their first outing...