English Football Culture

[Darren]

A thoroughly enjoyable read.

 

http://www.wsc.co.uk/content/view/5703/38/

[shaun.lawson]

Like most articles in WSC, it's a fine piece, impossible to disagree with on any level really. "Absolute pride in not thinking": well, exactly.

 

Of course, the similar dearth of thinking or intelligence in Scottish football coverage shows this is very much a British problem; but it's in England where the culture of excess and celebrity is at its grotesque worst. This is probably an iffy suggestion on my part, and certainly a snobbish one; but I wonder how much of this has to do with how many English footballers are drawn from the working class and are poorly educated - and how this compares with the social strata of footballers brought up in other European countries? Though if there's any truth in it, that in turn makes it something of a comment on British education, and British society beyond that.

 

"Somewhere in Britain, another library closed". Quite.

[wibble]

Football is not mainstream over here. It is very popular amongst European immigrants and the "new" Australian population (Asians, Africans and other assorted people). The World Cup was covered by SBS, the government funded minority news/tv channel. SBS have always passionately promoted "The World Game" and the presenters are fantastic.

 

http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/

 

 

They all love football - full stop. It didn't matter who was playing, these guys were loving it. Every team got respect. Every team was applauded for it's good performances and criticised when they didn't perform. No bullshit and Australia weren't going to win it at any time. Very refreshing way to watch the world cup.

 

As a Scot who has been away long enough to see the wood I really believe that the British nations are so self-obsessed that they have all stood still while the rest of the world has moved on. Jingoism rules in England where all the aspiring middle class can gloat about is past victories - WWII, 1966. Self loathing has eaten Scotland and Wales alive and most of the bitterness is based on events that affected the nation 400 years ago. Today's Britain has very little to be proud of and the role models are hideous. Hard- working sports professionals get nothing. Fashion queen sports celebs get all the attention. Fekkin grotesque. Negativity rules and true achievement is pushed aside in favour of gross consumerism and tatt.

[Only a Game]

I think what the article highlights and confirms, as if any confirmation was needed, was that the BBC, say what you like about them, know how to cover a major sporting event and ITV simply dont.

 

ITV, James Cordon apart, seemed to me to go for a low brow coverage of the whole event and felt the need to add a comedic theme to the whole 4 weeks. This was apparent even in their coverage of live games with Adrian Chiles (what a disaster of an appointment as anchor man) doing the warm up for the main event, which astonishingly, in ITV's eyes seemed to be James Cordon's show rather than the football itself. The Cordon show was of course pathetic. As a sit com actor and writer he's not bad, although he's peaked with Gavin and Stacey and nothing else I've ever seen him in has been remotely funny. Both his World cup show and the faux award routine he did at the Sports Personality of the Year show some months earlier were cringeworthy. ITV's coverage, I concluded was targeted to capture as many non football fans or "floaters" as possible. People who werent that interested in the football but liked the fact that there was a big event on and thought, well I'm not normally that bothered but James Cordon's in it so it'll be funny.

It was a truly strange angle to cover a major event from and a complete and utter disaster it turned out to be for ITV IMO.

 

BBC's coverage of what was, at the end of the day, a bit of a let down as a major tournament, was aimed at "Match of the Day" blokes. A tried and tested format with a very decent and credible presenter (Lineker) intelligent football analysis and straight forward presentation without the "Game for a Laugh" add ons.

 

I'm not sure if the article is making comment about football fans in general, just the ones who watched it on ITV and found the way they covered the event either funny, relevant, appropriate or amusing.

[southside1874]

Football is not mainstream over here. It is very popular amongst European immigrants and the "new" Australian population (Asians, Africans and other assorted people). The World Cup was covered by SBS, the government funded minority news/tv channel. SBS have always passionately promoted "The World Game" and the presenters are fantastic.

 

http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/

 

 

They all love football - full stop. It didn't matter who was playing, these guys were loving it. Every team got respect. Every team was applauded for it's good performances and criticised when they didn't perform. No bullshit and Australia weren't going to win it at any time. Very refreshing way to watch the world cup.

 

As a Scot who has been away long enough to see the wood I really believe that the British nations are so self-obsessed that they have all stood still while the rest of the world has moved on. Jingoism rules in England where all the aspiring middle class can gloat about is past victories - WWII, 1966. Self loathing has eaten Scotland and Wales alive and most of the bitterness is based on events that affected the nation 400 years ago. Today's Britain has very little to be proud of and the role models are hideous. Hard- working sports professionals get nothing. Fashion queen sports celebs get all the attention. Fekkin grotesque. Negativity rules and true achievement is pushed aside in favour of gross consumerism and tatt.

 

Most English footballers can't decide if they're sportsmen or celebrities. Being a celebrity seems to be a full time occupation. I just wonder when the universities will start degree courses?

[southside1874]

I think what the article highlights and confirms, as if any confirmation was needed, was that the BBC, say what you like about them, know how to cover a major sporting event and ITV simply dont.

 

ITV, James Cordon apart, seemed to me to go for a low brow coverage of the whole event and felt the need to add a comedic theme to the whole 4 weeks. This was apparent even in their coverage of live games with Adrian Chiles (what a disaster of an appointment as anchor man) doing the warm up for the main event, which astonishingly, in ITV's eyes seemed to be James Cordon's show rather than the football itself. The Cordon show was of course pathetic. As a sit com actor and writer he's not bad, although he's peaked with Gavin and Stacey and nothing else I've ever seen him in has been remotely funny. Both his World cup show and the faux award routine he did at the Sports Personality of the Year show some months earlier were cringeworthy. ITV's coverage, I concluded was targeted to capture as many non football fans or "floaters" as possible. People who werent that interested in the football but liked the fact that there was a big event on and thought, well I'm not normally that bothered but James Cordon's in it so it'll be funny.

It was a truly strange angle to cover a major event from and a complete and utter disaster it turned out to be for ITV IMO.

 

BBC's coverage of what was, at the end of the day, a bit of a let down as a major tournament, was aimed at "Match of the Day" blokes. A tried and tested format with a very decent and credible presenter (Lineker) intelligent football analysis and straight forward presentation without the "Game for a Laugh" add ons.

 

I'm not sure if the article is making comment about football fans in general, just the ones who watched it on ITV and found the way they covered the event either funny, relevant, appropriate or amusing.

 

Is he really that interested in football? Are the players that interested in football? Has football in England become just a means of being in the papers and keeping the wag happy?

[Darren]

The BBC is guilty of it's own light-hearted/funny attempt with MotD2 of course.

 

If I was a supporter of one of the 'lesser' teams in the EPL, I would probably be pretty aggrieved at how Sundays when, say, Wigan v Bolton play, are treated with frivolity, but as soon as it's Man U v Arsenal on a Sunday, Lineker and the boys are wheeled out to give it the more serious coverage. I find that pretty pathetic and extremely patronising.

[BangkokHearts]

You think the presentation is bad there? It probably is but we had no analysis or build-up whatsoever except on the local channels where the Thais commentate from a studio and the analysis is done by a couple of torn-faced ex-pub team players that sit huddled in front of a laptop.

 

Thankfully HD has arrived here now and we have John Dykes back on ESPN Asia from Singabore presenting the Premiership and he is very good indeed and puts anything else I have seen in UK or Thailand to shame.

 

When I visit Australia I must say I was impressed by the coverage of football on SBS there also.

[Charlie-Brown]

the world cup cruelly exposed the lack of any 'culture' in english football and all that remains is an over inflated sense of self importance, still at least they invented football.

[wibble]

the world cup cruelly exposed the lack of any 'culture' in english football and all that remains is an over inflated sense of self importance, still at least they invented football.

 

They ARE the wee team of world footballing giants eh? Mythmakers extraordinaire plagued by shoite goalkeepers and players who think they are too good for the team they are in.

 

 

 

[Only a Game]

Is he really that interested in football? Are the players that interested in football? Has football in England become just a means of being in the papers and keeping the wag happy?

Very good points

 

I think he is (Cordon). If he isnt he's gone to detailed and painstaking lengths and very cleverly invented a character that does. He apparently (according to the article in the OP) earned ?6 million in four weeks on the back of it.

 

 

I think with a lot of them (footballers), once they get to the very top level, the distractions and the ability to earn money outwith football because of their "celebrity" means that the football becomes secondary to them. I suppose once you've got an amount of money that you could never spend in your lifetime, you're need to do ANYTHING, and the drive that got you there in the first place, diminishes significantly. I think its true that many of them prefer celebrity to football.