The Olympics are obviously coming to a close tonight (the Paralympics are still to come) and people are talking about the legacy that it's going to leave. Fingers crossed that it gives the country a big push and we see more and more kids getting involved in various sports and that the government continues to match current spending on sport.
For me though, one of the legacies that I hope for is that it gives football, and particularly the presenting of football, a large kick up the jacksie. I've titled this article "Clare Balding" for a reason and that's because the coverage she's given throughout these games has been the polar opposite of the coverage we get of football - be it the SPL, Match of the Day or the major championships. Balding has been warm, engaging and most importantly knowledgable about the various sports that she's covered. She also provided one of my favourite moments of the games when she interviewed Chad Le Clos' dad live on air as he gushed about his "beautiful boy".
Compare that to what we get for football. Shearer, Hansen, Lawrenson sitting sneering their way through games, knowing nothing about the non-English teams, not even bothering to research the teams they're going to be commenting on (I remember one game at the last WC - Shearer and Hansen brazenly sat on the sofa and said they had no idea about the two teams they were about to watch. Dixon mentioned one player and Hansen gave a snide comment about how he'd "been fed that name"). ITV perhaps don't have that snide manner, but all they say is a bunch of cliched crap that is generally meaningless, and that any clown who has ever watched a game could have told you.
I'm not even going to start on Craig Burley or I'd be here all day.
I had actually hoped that the Olympic football coverage could have been given some new blood an opportunity to show why they could replace the usual clowns. Unfortunately the BBC didn't take that opportunity. And all it's done is confirm that the coverage of our national game needs a major overhaul. It needs presenters like Clare Balding.
Clare Balding...
posted on 12/8/12
BTG
Disco biscuits,and dancing all night in post ceasefire Belfast,where we all got together and had a laugh.Good fun and great times.Still run about with most of my cheesy quaver mates,all married with kids now though.
Doves were the business in 94.
Night guys,and cheers for the chat.
posted on 12/8/12
night BB
posted on 12/8/12
See ya mate
posted on 12/8/12
199
posted on 12/8/12
200
posted on 13/8/12
I'll never forgive Clare Balding for insulting that jocky's teeth a few years ago - it was awful.
John Inverdale is the worst though. Some of the interviews he conducted at Dorney Lake with British rowers who had come 2nd and third were beyond disgraceful, he kept going on at them about "losing" and "falling short" and so on. I couldn't believe what I was watching.
posted on 13/8/12
Thorpe was better
posted on 13/8/12
I thought the presenting was pretty poor apart from Claire Balding. Gary Linekar, Inverdale, humpheries and Logan seemed too dismissive of other athletes other than GB ones (yes I know they were their athletes).
However, analysis from the likes of Michael Johnson, Colin Jackson (athletics), Mark Foster, and Ian Thorpe (swimming) were extremely insightful and respectful of all the athletes (possibly understanding the journey each one has made to be there).
The problem with football punditry though is you can be found out very easily. Some pundits like hansen and Shearer come out with such obvious stuff that it borders on patronisng to the average football supporter, at the end of the day there isn't much to understand about football (you know when someone messes up). Other pundit like Gary Neville try to vere away from cliched drivel.
As for the BBC pundits not researching the teams that are playing, thats just unprofessional and unforgivable.
Good post
posted on 13/8/12
I couldn't for the life of me understand why they had John McEnroe talking about sports other than tennis. Michael Johnson I can understand to a point because he is a performance specialist, but tennis isn't even a proper Olympic sport.
posted on 13/8/12
Shearer come out with such obvious stuff that it borders on patronisng to the average football supporter
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Shearers idea of analysis is to describe what happened but using a 5 year olds vocabulary.