When David Beckham received the BBC Sports Lifetime Achievement award in December 2010, it was hard not to argue that this was more a victory for David Beckham’s PR people and their friends in the media, rather than an objective analysis of his sporting contribution in his still young life. Compared with some of the previous winners: Sir Alex Ferguson, Seve Ballesteros, Martina Navratilova and Pele, amongst others, Beckham’s achievements, so far, have been pretty limited. In a similar vein, prior to the 2010 World Cup, Talksport Radio appeared to make it their raison d’être to get Beckham into the England squad – and they were widely supported by a multitude of TV pundits. It was probably just as well, but unfortunate for the injured Beckham, that the England Manager was spared the wrath of populist media opinion by not having to make that decision.
No question he is popular, a great, but not world class, footballer and, according to RTG’s own sources, a genuinely nice person – if a little lacking in the brain department. However, his has been a remarkable public relations turnaround from the totally unfair bile and condemnation he received following his, and England’s, dismissal from the 1998 World Cup.
RTG has no problem with self satisfying award ceremonies, or popularity contests. Issues arise, however, when lazy TV and radio pundits, through lack of knowledge and thorough analysis, jump onto a popular bandwagon to apply pressure for their views to be acted upon. The aforementioned are just some examples of the media influencing, or attempting to influence, football irrationally. There are numerous other converse situations of players being branded as ‘divers’ or troublemakers that have subsequently influenced referees’ decisions. Referees have been suspended or downgraded because of media pundits, who, with the benefit of multiple camera angles and hours of hindsight, have condemned the poor souls to ridicule and humiliation for the benefit of filling TV airtime. There have also been players who have been punished purely based on the attentions of the media, whilst others more deserving have escaped because …well ... who knows why?
There was no real shock in the news that some presenters of a football show on Sky TV inadvertently made some sexist remarks. There was little surprise, also, in the fact that they were stupid enough to allow themselves to be recorded making those inappropriate comments. The big surprise, to RTG, at least, is that it took an incident of this kind for people to finally sit up and question the real contribution of the likes of Andy Gray and Richard Keys to football in the first place.
With all due respect to political correctness, the real issue was not just the ignorant ramblings of a self-aggrandising ex-footballer and his sycophantic side-kick, but also the question of why such men and notable others are being hugely enriched to deliver their lazy, clichéd, one-dimensional view of the game in the first place (apparently Andy Gray was on a £1.7 million salary).
It is quite possible that ‘dark forces’ were at work in Gray’s dismissal. His action against the News of the World in the phone tapping scandal was never likely to sit well with the owner of News International, Rupert Murdoch, who also happens to be the major shareholder in BSkyB. There is every chance he was the victim of one almighty stitch-up. But Sky’s constant arrogance in talking up its contribution to football in England and their sensationalist self-promotion had rubbed off on Gray to the point where, while he really believed he was something of an aficionado on the modern game, his analysis was predictably repetitive and focused purely on picking on the low hanging fruit rather than talking intelligently about the issues in the game.
It’s too easy, after all, to label a player as a diver or a cheat by highlighting him from several different camera angles, than it is to, say, learn the modern offside rule properly (something he belittled female assistant referee Sian Massey for, when it was he who struggled with its interpretation over the years). Did Gray ever criticise the structure and management of the game in this country? Or the money being pumped into the game by billionaires that totally distorts the competitiveness of football as a sport? Has he ever mentioned FIFA, except in his, and Sky’s, self-serving interest in promoting more reliance on TV replays?
Keys was just a below-average presenter who lucked out when Sky won the rights to monopolise Premier League football coverage and simply played the role of arse-licking hanger-on to Gray, feeding him the right lines and questions to make sure his over-sensationalised opinions could be aired to maximum effect.
So what? You may ask: so a few players/referees are inconsistently demonised by TV. Does it really matter? In RTG’s opinion it does. Firstly, we, the supporters have to pay for the pundits through the bloated Sky subscription fees - money that would be better spent on lowering the subscription fee or being invested in grass-roots football.
But there are other forces at work here. These guys influence the game in other more worrying ways. The most professional and impartial of referees can’t help but be swayed by the media, even subconsciously, if they are shown enough on TV. As discussed earlier, highlight a referee’s own mistakes often enough from the comfort of your commentary box and you can put immense pressure on him (or her!) not to give decisions a certain way.
If you doubt the influence of the TV presenter, just look at Italy where Aldo Biscardi hosted the programme ”Il Processo di Biscardi” (Biscardi’s Trial) for 26 years. The programme was considered among the most influential in Italian football but was tainted by publication of phone taps of conversations between him and former Juventus Managing Director, Luciano Moggi, in 2006 at the height of the Italian match-fixing scandal. Moggi influenced the choice of guests on the show, the choice of matches to be analysed, which incidents were to be analysed, the tone of the criticism and even the results of viewer polls. All with the aim of painting Juventus in a better light.
RTG is not suggesting that either Gray, or any other pundit for that matter, was up to the same underhand activity. Although RTG still finds it most curious as to the reasons for Gray’s fawning praise of the early Abramovich regime at Chelsea, where they could scarcely put a foot wrong, either on or off the field. But we shouldn’t take it for granted that this could never happen in the English game or that it hasn’t already. There are huge sums of money in football today. Teams are owned by billionaires who are used to using their money and power to get what they want. We’ll never know if there were other factors involved in the 2007 deal that saw Referee, Rob Styles’ company being awarded the contract to pave Roman Abramovich’s driveway. It was reported but did not receive the scrutiny that it should have done. And let’s not underestimate how reliant the media is on feeding off its own share of the football spoils.
It doesn’t seem unreasonable that we, the paying public, should expect the highest journalistic standards from regular front-line presenters, doing what is, after all, a journalists’ job. They should be guardians of the sport and not a mouthpiece for the businesses feeding off it. We want matches not only to be reviewed consistently, impartially and knowledgeably, but also have the pressing issues that affect all football supporters aired more widely.
Too often it appears that pundits do their research in ‘Hello’ and ‘Ok’ magazines and not in the FA’s rule book. David Beckham as next England manager anyone?
No question he is popular, a great, but not world class, footballer and, according to RTG’s own sources, a genuinely nice person – if a little lacking in the brain department. However, his has been a remarkable public relations turnaround from the totally unfair bile and condemnation he received following his, and England’s, dismissal from the 1998 World Cup.
RTG has no problem with self satisfying award ceremonies, or popularity contests. Issues arise, however, when lazy TV and radio pundits, through lack of knowledge and thorough analysis, jump onto a popular bandwagon to apply pressure for their views to be acted upon. The aforementioned are just some examples of the media influencing, or attempting to influence, football irrationally. There are numerous other converse situations of players being branded as ‘divers’ or troublemakers that have subsequently influenced referees’ decisions. Referees have been suspended or downgraded because of media pundits, who, with the benefit of multiple camera angles and hours of hindsight, have condemned the poor souls to ridicule and humiliation for the benefit of filling TV airtime. There have also been players who have been punished purely based on the attentions of the media, whilst others more deserving have escaped because …well ... who knows why?
There was no real shock in the news that some presenters of a football show on Sky TV inadvertently made some sexist remarks. There was little surprise, also, in the fact that they were stupid enough to allow themselves to be recorded making those inappropriate comments. The big surprise, to RTG, at least, is that it took an incident of this kind for people to finally sit up and question the real contribution of the likes of Andy Gray and Richard Keys to football in the first place.
With all due respect to political correctness, the real issue was not just the ignorant ramblings of a self-aggrandising ex-footballer and his sycophantic side-kick, but also the question of why such men and notable others are being hugely enriched to deliver their lazy, clichéd, one-dimensional view of the game in the first place (apparently Andy Gray was on a £1.7 million salary).
It is quite possible that ‘dark forces’ were at work in Gray’s dismissal. His action against the News of the World in the phone tapping scandal was never likely to sit well with the owner of News International, Rupert Murdoch, who also happens to be the major shareholder in BSkyB. There is every chance he was the victim of one almighty stitch-up. But Sky’s constant arrogance in talking up its contribution to football in England and their sensationalist self-promotion had rubbed off on Gray to the point where, while he really believed he was something of an aficionado on the modern game, his analysis was predictably repetitive and focused purely on picking on the low hanging fruit rather than talking intelligently about the issues in the game.
It’s too easy, after all, to label a player as a diver or a cheat by highlighting him from several different camera angles, than it is to, say, learn the modern offside rule properly (something he belittled female assistant referee Sian Massey for, when it was he who struggled with its interpretation over the years). Did Gray ever criticise the structure and management of the game in this country? Or the money being pumped into the game by billionaires that totally distorts the competitiveness of football as a sport? Has he ever mentioned FIFA, except in his, and Sky’s, self-serving interest in promoting more reliance on TV replays?
Keys was just a below-average presenter who lucked out when Sky won the rights to monopolise Premier League football coverage and simply played the role of arse-licking hanger-on to Gray, feeding him the right lines and questions to make sure his over-sensationalised opinions could be aired to maximum effect.
So what? You may ask: so a few players/referees are inconsistently demonised by TV. Does it really matter? In RTG’s opinion it does. Firstly, we, the supporters have to pay for the pundits through the bloated Sky subscription fees - money that would be better spent on lowering the subscription fee or being invested in grass-roots football.
But there are other forces at work here. These guys influence the game in other more worrying ways. The most professional and impartial of referees can’t help but be swayed by the media, even subconsciously, if they are shown enough on TV. As discussed earlier, highlight a referee’s own mistakes often enough from the comfort of your commentary box and you can put immense pressure on him (or her!) not to give decisions a certain way.
If you doubt the influence of the TV presenter, just look at Italy where Aldo Biscardi hosted the programme ”Il Processo di Biscardi” (Biscardi’s Trial) for 26 years. The programme was considered among the most influential in Italian football but was tainted by publication of phone taps of conversations between him and former Juventus Managing Director, Luciano Moggi, in 2006 at the height of the Italian match-fixing scandal. Moggi influenced the choice of guests on the show, the choice of matches to be analysed, which incidents were to be analysed, the tone of the criticism and even the results of viewer polls. All with the aim of painting Juventus in a better light.
RTG is not suggesting that either Gray, or any other pundit for that matter, was up to the same underhand activity. Although RTG still finds it most curious as to the reasons for Gray’s fawning praise of the early Abramovich regime at Chelsea, where they could scarcely put a foot wrong, either on or off the field. But we shouldn’t take it for granted that this could never happen in the English game or that it hasn’t already. There are huge sums of money in football today. Teams are owned by billionaires who are used to using their money and power to get what they want. We’ll never know if there were other factors involved in the 2007 deal that saw Referee, Rob Styles’ company being awarded the contract to pave Roman Abramovich’s driveway. It was reported but did not receive the scrutiny that it should have done. And let’s not underestimate how reliant the media is on feeding off its own share of the football spoils.
It doesn’t seem unreasonable that we, the paying public, should expect the highest journalistic standards from regular front-line presenters, doing what is, after all, a journalists’ job. They should be guardians of the sport and not a mouthpiece for the businesses feeding off it. We want matches not only to be reviewed consistently, impartially and knowledgeably, but also have the pressing issues that affect all football supporters aired more widely.
Too often it appears that pundits do their research in ‘Hello’ and ‘Ok’ magazines and not in the FA’s rule book. David Beckham as next England manager anyone?
