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Why Do ITV Find Football So Hard?

It's difficult to imagine either Sky or the BBC dropping such a spectacular bollock as Wednesday night's debacle. And it's not just the technical stuff, there's a problem of personnel...

Last Updated: 06/02/09 at 13:10 Post Comment

Firstly, did Steve Ryder run over a black cat on the way to the studio? Rotten luck to show 118 minutes of tense, attritional but scarcely unmissable football and then disappear off air at the key, climactic moment.

Still, 59 seconds is a long time when you're watching a Tictacs commercial - and its unconsciously ironic tagline 'good job lads'.

"Liverpool are very unhappy about something," squawked Clive Tyldesley when we finally got back to the match to see Everton dry-humping each other half to death. The Liverpool players weren't the only folk very unhappy.

Personally, I found it partly amusing because I was in a pub where the barman is both a Liverpool fan and an absolute weapon. His sad little angry face, jaw opening and closing like a baby bird waiting for a worm that wouldn't come...it would keep me smiling for the entire journey home through the frozen tundra of West London, where the snow in places was literally almost an inch deep.

The morning after, and ITV find themselves with the full fury of the public turned upon them - by elevenses, already 1,000 complaints. Their message boards are not for the faint hearted either.

ITV overlord Michael Grade, no less, has attempted to mollify the customers, probably about as successfully as Ryder last night. But this is merely the latest sporting blunder from the country's major commercial broadcaster.

Their laughable third-round highlights package - the three key games given about three seconds each in an obviously predetermined schedule - has already drawn serious criticism. Last night, just a few minutes after the game finished...we had half an hour's highlights of the match we had just (partly) watched.

Live sport is not an easy thing to cover, God knows, but for all the bland, golf-club chumminess of their presenters, the BBC tend to broadcast what is happening on the actual pitch, on the rare occasions they do have the rights to something. As for Sky, your top, top Jamies and Richard Keys telling you that every game ever televised could be THE VITAL MATCH THIS SEASON is not to everybody's taste, but they do seem to be able to actually show, you know, the football. I cannot think of, nor can I really conceive of, either Sky or BBC dropping such a spectacular bollock as last night's. Leaving the 'automatic advert break machine' on, oblivious to the fact that the match might be extended, seems unbelievably amateurish.

Aside from the technical difficulties, ITV have a problem of personnel. One fundamental issue is that Ryder does not say 'football' to most viewers. While he may not be quite as miscast as Channel Five's attempts to have horseracing's Brough Scott wring a coherent sentence out of Sir Les Ferdinand before striding stiffly round a makeshift 'studio café' to interview no less a personage than Alan off EastEnders about the England v Poland Big One, Ryder nevertheless gives the impression of a man who would rather be watching the golf. Or the boat race. Or anything involving Pringle jumpers. Just not beastly 'footy'.

Townsend, Ally McCoist, Gazza at the Japorea World Cup, the Big Wrong/Desailly incident, Euro 2008 Gary Neville (for crying out loud)...the role of shame is long and misguided at ITV. The overall impression to the viewer is that the people making the programmes don't really understand, nor particularly care for, their target audience.

This, in turn, makes you wonder whether the FA should consider more than just the money on offer when it comes to selling rights. Could bids be scrutinised more closely and gigs awarded to broadcasters who demonstrate a grasp of what the viewers want? Or is it just about selling off the family silver to the highest bidder and bugger the quality? ITV, and the FA, need to keep their eye, and camera, on the ball.

Alan Tyers could do a better job than ITV. He knows all about television because he writes for daily, free e-mail tvBite. Find it at www.tvbite.com

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ood article, as I've stated already those who consider Webb favoured United are blind to reality.

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ntil fans are prepared to denounce their own players for diving, there is no moral high ground to be had on the issue.

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