Playing The Game
'As the holly and the mistletoe were taken down at the end of a Christmas blighted by the credit crunch, there was reason for one last glass of champagne for embattled executives at ITV. For they, at least, enjoyed a buoyant festive season as fans shunned the pubs and clubs and stayed at home to watch seasonal football,' reports The Times.
'Bombarded with criticism for their presentation of the FA Cup third-round fixtures and disparaged for shifting the televised draw for the fourth round from its popular Monday lunchtime slot to Sunday afternoon, there was some respite in the viewing figures. More than 7.3 million watched the live FA Cup third-round tie between Preston North End and Liverpool on Saturday evening, with 4.6 million tuning into the match on Sunday between Gillingham and Aston Villa. An audience of 2.3 million watched the highlights show on Saturday night.'
Err, a word or two of statistics for The Times' Sports News Correspondent Kevin Eason, author of this remarkable piece headlined 'ITV emerges with credit after festive feast of FA Cup action'.
Last January, when the FA Cup was broadcast by BBC and Sky, the Saturday evening match - Aston Villa v ManYoo - was watched by 9m, the highlights programme by 3.35m and the Sunday match by 6.9m.
In other words, by every available comparison, this year's figures registered a sharp decline.
So much, then, for the claim the viewing figures provided 'respite' and 'credit' - and so much, incidentally, for the claim made on F365 yesterday by the sort of dullards who still point at airplanes in the sky that our criticism of ITV's coverage was corporately motivated, because The Times happens to be owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.
But in any case, ratings are far from being a reliable guide to the quality of programming. As Mediawatch has regularly noted in the past, just because a football match happens to attract a bumper audience does not mean that the programme was necessarily a pleasure to watch.
ITV, predictably, have rebuffed criticism of their highlights show - which covered the three major shocks of the day in around three minutes in a back-to-back segment after lengthy coverage of their four pre-selected highlighted games - by declaring, "The viewing figures suggest it was a great weekend of football."
They do, but that's nothing to do with ITV.
As for the failure to provide extended highlights beyond the pre-selected chosen four games, a spokesman is quoted thus: "We had to make the decision which games to concentrate on, but we think we gave every game a good show."
No, you didn't - the show wasn't good and the need to pre-select games is also debatable. After all, the major attraction of FA Cup third-round weekend is the potential for shock results and there were five useful hours between the games ending and the highlights being broadcast. Plenty of time for editing, voice-overs and the production of slightly more than three minutes of action from Eastlands, Stamford Bridge and Victoria Park combined.
"You can put a case for leading with the Man City game but we wanted to reflect the spirit of the FA Cup and this (Forest Green v Derby) was a great game," continued the spokesman, apparently oblivious to the reality that it wasn't the choice of leading with Forest Green v Derby that was the problem, but the decision to show less than two minutes of the City game.
Quite ridiculously, in what sounds like a plea for sympathy, the spokesman is even quoted in the equally-critical Daily Mail as observing: "Obviously, it was not like a normal Premier League Saturday, with a handful of matches."
Good grief. ITV have had months to prepare and if there's one thing that is guaranteed on third-round weekend, then it's that there are a lot of matches played.
Actually, that's a point. Thank heavens a few were postponed. Goodness only knows the sort of rations we'd have been on otherwise.
Moving Back Down
Said Pompey chief executive Peter Storrie as the club tried to lure Jermain Defoe from Spurs last year:
"He wanted to come and that shows we are a club moving in the right direction."
As Defoe has now abandoned Pompey to return to Spurs, can we interpret his move as official confirmation that the club are moving in the wrong direction?
The End Game
As reported by the BBC on December 28:
'Tottenham have ended their interest in bringing back striker Jermain Defoe after Portsmouth received a "massive offer" from another club.
'Spurs boss Harry Redknapp, who left Portsmouth to join the London club earlier this season, brought the 26-year-old Defoe to Pompey 11 months ago.
'"I think they've a massive offer from somebody for him, so good luck to them - I paid about £9m," said Redknapp. "He is a good player but we're not going to pay over the top for anyone."'
As reported by the BBC on January 6:
'Portsmouth have accepted a bid from Tottenham to sign England striker Jermain Defoe on a five-year contract. The deal, which is expected to be worth about £15m...'
Prediction Of Yesterday
"I'd be surprised if the deal gets done" - Harry Redknapp on Tottenham's chances of landing Jermain Defoe.
Why Indeed?
"Tony is a great manager. Training has been brilliant and I'm playing with good players - that is the most important thing for me.
"There's talk but once you are out there and playing you aren't thinking about what is going on - you are just playing football. am a Portsmouth player. I'm enjoying my time here, I'm working hard and I'm scoring goals.
"I'm in a good team and we want to push up the table. So why would I think about leaving the club?" - Jermain Defoe, November 25.
Observation Of The Day
"The Carling Cup semis will be massive for all the players" - Alan Hansen.
An Expensive Freebie
As reported by London freebie Metro in an article about Wayne Bridge:
'Mark Hughes has so far been unable to spend the cash of the newly crowned 'richest club in the world' and that has partly contributed to the team's poor form so far this season...'
Bridge is in for a helluva shock when he lines up alongside Robinho, bought on the final day of the summer transfer window after Hughes made him the most expensive player in the history of British football...
Coming Soon...
Less than two months after making (what we think was) his debut for ITV as a pundit for England's friendly with Germany, Graeme Le Saux has been unveiled as a participant on the station's Dancing on Ice programme.
Story Of The Day
From The Daily Mirror:
'Soccer ace Shola Ameobi was as sick as a parrot after being burgled.
'The furious Newcastle star, 27, called cops detailing the items stolen, including his cheque book.
'Then the truth hit home to the dopey striker, 27 - his £500,000 pad had not been ransacked, he had just left it incredibly messy.'
Quote Of The Day
"We've got two fit strikers and two players (Gilberto and Hossam Ghaly) who can't play because the crowd don't like them. Apart from that we're not too bad" - Spurs' Harry Redknapp on the need of a trip to the January sales.
Rumour Of The Day
'Manchester City owner Sheik Mansour has promised Mark Hughes one marquee signing at the end of the January transfer window as he continues to throw millions of pounds at his struggling Barclays Premier League club. It is understood that Sheik Mansour s intent on capturing either Terry, Valencia's David Villa, Barcelona's Lionel Messi or Milan's Kaka before trading closes for the season on February 2' - The Daily Mail.
Misleading Headline Of The Day
'Leinster Grapple with lack of Hookers' - The Irish Times.
Non-Football Story Of The Day
'A RECORD 2.4million workers cried off sick yesterday. The total - 8.3 per cent of the workforce - is believed to be the highest ever. An estimated 6,823 working days per 100,000 workers is forecast to be lost to illness this week, a jump of 2,000 on last year' - The Sun
Runner-Up
'An Australian woman has been charged with murder after allegedly setting her husband's genitals on fire because she thought he was having an affair. Prosecutors told the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Monday that 44-year-old Rajini Narayan confessed to neighbors that she set her husband on fire on 8 December after she saw him hug another woman' - AP
Thanks very much to today's Mediawatch spotters: Jon M, Brendan, John Morris. If you spot something that belongs on this page, mail theeditor@football365.com.
