At the start of the 1964/65 Division One season, the BBC’s flagship football show hit the airwaves for the first time. Match of the Day has a rich history, badging Football League highlights shows as well as live coverage of matches in the Football League, FA Cup, World Cups and European Championships. Along with Sports Report, this is an English football icon. Or rather, it used to be.
Kenneth Wolstenholme took charge of that first show, followed over the intervening years by David Coleman, Jimmy Hill and Des Lynam. The show became best known for its Saturday evening top flight highlights show, the linchpin of the weekend for many football supporters up and down the country. Throughout the Premier League era MOTD has remained strong, give or take the odd loss of rights to ITV, but the show has come in for increasing criticism in recent seasons.
Today the main show is presented by Gary Lineker, a former England striker who has anchored MOTD since 1999. In that time, he’s morphed from former professional footballer into a middle-of-the-road broadcaster, which in itself is no mean feat. To be frank, were it not for the incessant puns and the fact that he is hamstrung by the format and a pair of shambolic sidekicks, Lineker wouldn’t be a bad presenter.
The show’s reputation has undoubtedly suffered in the social media age. Football supporters haven’t all become more savvy. We don’t all write about the game, research it in depth, talk about it all day, obsess over tactics, watch games from around the world and go on radio shows to give our opinion as pseudo-experts rather than drunken fans. Trouble is, some of us do - as a result, MOTD‘s surface-scraping is spotted, noted and exposed.
This phenomenon reached its nadir earlier this season. Hatem Ben Arfa, a French player of some repute for a number of years, had finally made his way into the Premier League and scored a wonderful goal to open his English account for Newcastle United, capping a fine performance for the promoted club. In the MOTD studio, pundit Alan Shearer freely admitted that he knew nothing about Ben Arfa and gave no indication that he felt that (a) he was unusual in this among so-called experts or (b) it’s his job as a publicly-funded football pundit to do some research.
To rub salt into a keenly-felt wound, Ben Arfa’s club is one that Shearer should know like the back of his hand. After a summer of watching the BBC’s pundits openly laugh and joke about knowing next to nothing about a number of countries and players participating in the World Cup in South Africa, this continuation of their handsomely paid laziness was too much to bear and the debate about MOTD began in earnest. In these two posts, I’d like to explore a few problems and solutions.
Presenter and pundits
Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, Alan Hansen, Mark Lawrenson: an array of stagnating, irritating, distracted personalities who need to be put out to pasture. Lineker’s the best of them, but I’m very much of the opinion that MOTD should be swept away and started again if we’re to tolerate it until the end of its current Premier League highlights deal in 2013, and that includes the presenter. He’s not all that difficult to watch overall, but his bad jokes and wet blanket persona have just become too much over time.
Shearer is the only pundit on the show that makes me want to throw a breeze block through the television. Time after time he demonstrates a limited knowledge of the game, a tabloidish sensibility and, most seriously, a lack of willingness to broaden his horizons. The BBC is, presumably, providing him with reams and reams of research. Does he just not read it? Why not? We’re paying him enough. But for me, Shearer just isn’t the man for the job in any way. At times he’s nothing more than a Newcastle correspondent, with MOTD having included unusual magazine-style features in the last couple of years as the club underwent significant drama and change. That’s not what this show is for, and it wouldn’t have happened without Shearer in the studio.
Club bias is an accusation that has been levelled for countless years at Hansen, but it’s slightly unfair in my view. Whether his movement away from it reflects his own tired demeanour or Liverpool’s ‘levelling off’ - as we’ll put it kindly - he doesn’t seem so bad these days. Unfortunately, he gives the impression of a man who doesn’t want to be there - bored, distant and uninterested. It’s time he was put out of his misery and ours.
Adding more top-line, uninsightful nonsense to the mix is Mark Lawrenson. Again, I don’t find Lawrenson as objectionable as do many. But his sarcastic faux-cynicism is grating and his Alan Green-style bitching and moaning about the ‘quality’ of games on which he’s been tasked to do colour commentary - especially during the World Cup - is enough for me to want to see him off the MOTD sofa. I’d cut off limbs - my own and those of others - to be in the gantry at a World Cup. Instead I have to help to pay for a bunch of ungrateful sods with no idea how lucky they are.
As for solving the problem, I’m not sure the BBC has to look far, but maybe it should. Already on the books, Gabby Logan and Lee Dixon would be capable of doing a decent job in the current format. Many other presenters had their hats thrown into the ring when Match of the Day 2 presenter Adrian Chiles jumped ship to ITV and the discussion about cast and format spilled over into the main Saturday show. James Richardson, Jeff Stelling and a number of other names were suggested, some a better fit than others.
In terms of pundits, I don’t think the BBC has anyone else worthy of a permanent position in the line-up but I don’t believe that a revolving door is necessarily a good solution either. The quality of punditry in England is sadly very poor.
For me, the BBC should be looking at this not as a baseless criticism of the team on set now, or as a chance to airlift in three other fresh-faced folk to trot out the same tried, tested and dated rubbish that comes our way at present, but as an opportunity to freshen up the format and give Match of the Day a wake-up call, modernising it for the social media era. In Part Two, I’ll examine some possible new formats that could be embraced.
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Tags: BBC, Match of the Day, TV Coverage
As a football fan, it pains me to say this, but I don’t even bother watching Match of the Day anymore, and I know many, many others who feel the same.
Years ago MotD was staple viewing for me and my friends - it really is astonishing how quickly the programme has fallen from grace.
It seems as though the entire programme has become a platform for the egos of its presenters, who are overly matey and jocular with each other, often at the expense of any real analysis or insight into what has happened.
Most pundits have their own agenda, based on their own club allegiances, which invariably distorts their opinions and ability to present even-handed, measured analysis.
Only exclusions from this are Lineker who, although Partridge-esque at times, is a country mile ahead of any other football presenter (see Chiles/Kamara/Keys for evidence) and Lee Dixon, who usually has something interesting to say.
There’s no doubt that MotD is in need of a drastic format change if they are to bring the viewers back.
Coincidentally I’ve started to keep a tally of the clubs that are the last game on MOTD - something many fans complain about, it’s already sprung up a couple of surprise trends. One being the fact that Liverpool have only been on the Saturday program 3 times this season (out of a possible 13), so maybe that’s the reason you’ve noticed Alan Hanson’s bias towards Liverpool dwindle - he just hasn’t had the chance to go on about them much this year.
http://lastonmotd.posterous.com/
An interesting debate spark this. Remember it isn’t long ago that the Beeb put a couple of pundits out to sod as they felt they didn’t fit the MOTD brand - Peter Schmeichel and Graeme Le Saux.
While Schmeichel was fairly criticised as a little insipid he knocked spots off the hapless Shearer. He clearly read his research and was able to contribute well - especially when it came to goalkeeping questions.
Le Saux isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but his handling was a shambles. Starting as co-commentator on England games he was swiftly demoted off our TVs altogether. A real shame in my view for he fairly held up his image as a cerebral and erudite footballer by daring to criticise his peers and providing insightful analysis for on and off pitch matters.
The only pundit currently impressing on UK terrestrrial TV is Steve Hodge - mores the shame he’s stuck away on ITV4 taking ‘graveyard’ non-English Europa League ties. His knowledge of the sides on show is exemplary (he knew PSG’s Erding had missed a hatful the week below - imagine Shearer knowing that!) and his ability to spot less obvious contributing factors to sides approach (pressing, overlaps, drifting formations) is a pleasing surprise.
Great post Chris, similar to one I wrote previously: http://goodfeetforabigman.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/platonic-punditry/.
I completely agree that Match of the Day has reached a dismal nadir this season (in fact I’m not sure that it has dropped in quality much since it returned to the Beeb, but our relief at having it wrested back from ITV and that terrible U2 song has finally worn off).
A large part of the problem, as you suggest, is that insight seems a lot to expect from someone paid to play sports while the rest of us were reading and writing and honing our communication skills. It is not then surprising that the likes of Shearer come across as ignorant dolts every week. The introduction of a few journalists would be a welcome relief - as Marcotti is on ITV’s Champions League show. Perhaps Jonathon Wilson or Michael Cox for some tactical input?
I think MOTD as part of a public broadcast has certain responsibilities; namely to the majority of the population. I would imagine technical in-depth journalism is not what some (most?) of the population want to see. In the same way a large proportion of people read The Sun, and that people like Ian Wright and Harry Redknapp can find gigs as a columnist, heavily opinionated punditry is obviously seen as what sell MOTD to most people. Does anyone know the trends of viewing figures?
As with the current LFC side, it’s hard to telll whether the problem is the personnel or their instructions.
Given the change in football consumption, I’m looking for a much more creative format. Where are the detailed tactical analyses? The stat watches? The interviews with fans about fan culture? The profile of emerging young talent?
MOTD is not a ‘best bits’ a news show nor a magazine show at the moment - it’s like a bad version of The Week. And I can get that via YouTube.
I agree, I think that the rise of the amateur expert (again alluded to in the piece) shows that there is sufficient public appetite for more in-depth analysis.
Thanks for your comments everyone. I think you pro-analysis guys will be a little disappointed with Part Two!
@ Martin Lucas - it’s hardly a surprising trend that Liverpool have featured so little on the Saturday edition of MOTD. They’ve played a couple of ‘big games’ on Sundays, and the rest of the time they’re playing on Sunday because of their Europa League commitments, including qualifiers.
Next you’ll be telling us that there’s a similar ‘surprise pattern’ with Manchester City, too?
The only problem i have with match of the day is lawro and murray, everything else is fine, as long as it’s not on ITV again then it’s all good. I think people like to complain too much nowadays.
Just turn the entire show over to the Football Weekly team. Hansen and Lineker aren’t terrible but Lawro is just as bad as Shearer. F365 has nicknamed Friday “Lawro Day” in its Mediawatching section for how hilariously wrong he gets it each and every week.
I would love to sit down and watch AC Jimbo, Glendenning, Honigstein et al muse about the games. They’re already doing it for the Guardian, just allow them access to the footage of the games.
The Ben Arfa debacle just showed the utter dross that they serve up on that show.
I could have thrown a garage sized amount of breeze blocks at Shearer’s ignorance over the years - compelled to blogged twice about his incompetence as a pundit.
I share your view on this and have felt disenfranchised from MOTD for sometime, hardly ever watch it now to have a strong view on it any longer.
However, after having conflicting debates about similar points with good friends of mine down the years, who appreciate MOTD but who equally have no interest in football beyond the EPL. I’ve come to terms with the fact MOTD is tailored to the masses and part of its agenda is not to educate or insight - unfortunately.
For those of whom do venture out beyond the mainstream, it might just feel a much more interesting place; the wonderful ESPN UK, live web streams, impassioned yet insightful bloggers and podcasts to name but a view.
Shearer on MOTD shows each week why he was such an abysmal failure as newcastle manager and why he cannot get a job as a manager. If you aren’t good tactically, be a good motivator. Shearer has the personality of the average walnut. Lawro is just a fool, i really don’t want to see him on motd.
Hansen is the best of the main 3, he tends to get it wrong though. His so-called bias is bollocks, he has none. Hell Shearer doesn’t even act like he gives a toss about newcastle. I’d like to see some actual passion about the teams, Ian Wright is an idiot but at least he actually made MOTD entertaining, especially in the england games he was part of the broadcast team for. He may not have been a great broadcaster, a journalist or an analyst, but at least i liked the guy.
Dixon/Keown should get far more time on there. Intelligent analysis and discussion combined with being actually quite likeable is lovely.
Here is a list of pundits that should never be allowed near a studio or gantry ever again:
Glenn Hoddle
Mark Lawrenson
Alan Shearer
Mick McCarthy
Lee Dixon
Mark Bright
Steve Claridge
Alan Hansen
Phil Thompson
Andy Townsend
Need I go on?
BBC, ITV and Sky continuously employ mugs to talk about the game. If I listened, it would ruin it for me.
But I’m a purist. I watch the game and decide upon my own conclusions. More should do the same, because their painful bias-ness shades the view of so many morons. Just make a tea at half time and watch the highlights of games you missed online. Maybe even try watching a game without the commentary. You might find over-rated players aren’t as enriched in praise as they so often are and players who find themselves harshly pin-pointed don’t get as much as a rough ride. But also, Football may become more enjoyable.
There are so many morons on the couches and the gantries becaause there a so many morons at home watching.
Most have no idea about the game; including most pundits.
Keown has an incredibly ability to make the simplest concept (an own goal being an undesirable outcome when defending a set-piece for example) sound phenomenally complicated. What is he doing with his hands?!
[...] but hopefully constructive criticism of Match of the Day and my ambitious proposals for reform. In Part One, I tried to cram the perceived (by me) problem into a few hundred words before looking more closely [...]
Why do we need punditry? I bet many viewers simply record MOTD and skip to the action. Why not an “action only” MOTD and leave analysis to Football Focus (or a new show in that vein) but with the depth some crave?
Wayne, I think you might agree with one of my proposals in Part Two: http://twofootedtackle.com/football-culture/match-of-the-day-time-for-a-shake-up-part-two/