World Cup

[tlg1903]

I suspect it might be the argie press Kow, they are likely to be beneath the vip section. Could be wrong though

[manc_don]

I suspect it might be the argie press Kow, they are likely to be beneath the vip section. Could be wrong though

 

He was having the Argentinian “su padre” moment

[rocket_scientist]

Whilst I agree that Maradona lacks "class", the giving of the middle fingers doesn't define it for me.

 

Having passion is good and righting wrongs is allowed.

 

I suspect Diego is mad however and whatever definition we attribute to class, it won't include him.

 

Years of global adulation, substance abuse and eating industrial sized portions has taken its toll.

 

Lineker equally lacks class. His quick condemnation was born from bitterness. Guffy wank.

[RicoS321]

Lineker equally lacks class. His quick condemnation was born from bitterness. Guffy wank.

 

It really was, wasn't it? It was pathetic. Surely classless is ramming a camera in someone's face continuously and not expecting them to react? Classlessness was his pathetic jingoism and partisan bias when Kane didn't get a penalty against Tunisia, or his flippant remarks about Germany.

 

I have nothing against Lineker in general (mainly cause I don't watch him enough to care). He made some decent points last night about VAR in the face of dimwitted strawman arguments from Ferdinand and Drogba, without appearing condescending. He often offer more than the supposed experts on his show too (not sure why he wouldn't of course). However, he presides over the worst coverage of a world cup it's poosible to imagine. It was a huge opportunity for the BBC to provide a view of world football, with massive insight and a chance for everyone to learn something they might not have known about the game in respective countries. Instead we get the English lens of partisan bollocks with half-arsed punditry opinion and a distinct lack of evidenced analysis.

 

The fitba has been decent though.

[rocket_scientist]

Lineker's problem is one of smugness. When one is fortunate enough to have been blessed with gifts, it is incumbent on the blessee to accept them with humility. He's so up his own arse, it offends everybody other than the Guffy mentality who still believe in their own superiority and who conveniently ignore that the empire was lost a very long time ago... by that alcoholic Churchill actually.

[Kowalski]

Don’t mind Linekar. If we’d qualified, I’d expect the Scottish coverage to be biased.

[RicoS321]

Don’t mind Linekar. If we’d qualified, I’d expect the Scottish coverage to be biased.

 

We wouldn't get Scottish coverage.

 

Expecting it is also different to desiring it, which I definitely wouldn't. The criticism was one of class, and I'd say it entirely lacks class to present in bias. I'd rather see a really well informed fitba program that provided a neutral view of the tournament with a lot of insight into the game in different countries. It's supposed to be a celebration of world fitba, the BBC should hold itself to higher standards because they have the funding and ability to do so. Have separate, unapologetic, half hour shows (nightly if necessary) that go into the detail of the home nations as and when they qualify. I'm more than happy to accept bias when the home nation is involved in a match too, there's not an issue there. An entire tournament viewed through an English lens is fucking tedious though.

 

Edit: I've watched tournaments that Scotland have qualified for, and those tournaments were still presented as English shows. The notion that Scotland would get anywhere near the coverage is ludicrous. There would be (was) a patronising bias toward Scotland, which is neither asked for or required, which was similar to that received by Wales in the euros.

[Kowalski]

You must have been watching a different channel. BBC Scotland and STV have covered Scotland games when we’ve been in major tournaments. It’s been a while though!

[Ten Caat]

Arthur Montford and Archie McPhershun were absolutely unashamedly Scotland biased in their commentaries all those years ago.

[RicoS321]

You must have been watching a different channel. BBC Scotland and STV have covered Scotland games when we’ve been in major tournaments. It’s been a while though!

 

Scotland matches, yes, I'm speaking about the entire tournament. The entire tournament(s) were covered via an English lens, that was my point. I have no issue with us getting English coverage of English matches. I don't need to view Spain v Portugal with a 7 minute half time preview of the England game 3 days later, or a Germany game with them presented as some sort of enemy. The entire tournament is presented to me, in Scotland, as if I was English. The BBC have an obligation not to do that. They should be better than that. They should hold themselves to a higher standard. I'm saying that its disappointing, and a missed opportunity, that the coverage is so partisan. You raised the subject of class, which Rocket then extended to Lineker, and I'm saying that the partisan coverage in its entirety lacks class.

[RicoS321]

Arthur Montford and Archie McPhershun were absolutely unashamedly Scotland biased in their commentaries all those years ago.

 

Indeed, for Scotland matches. Did they present entire tournaments (not that that is what I'm suggesting should happen)?

[Guest kiriakovisthenewstrachan]

The English just dinna seem to get the fact that they are broadcasting to more than just England itself.  The constant, "meanwhile over at the England camp" bollocks at half time in EVERY match is a bit tiresome.

 

Piers Morgan even this morning was saying we should all be flying England flags - fine if you are in England but some of us are not.

 

I also hate the fact that both BBC and ITV are using a pile of foreign pundits.  Nothing against the folk generally but their English is not always the best and last night Zabaleta clearly did not understand half of the phrases Lineker was saying so could not properly join in the debate.

[Ten Caat]

Indeed, for Scotland matches. Did they present entire tournaments (not that that is what I'm suggesting should happen)?

 

What you have to realise is that TV coverage has changed somewhat since the bygone days of the 70s and 80s when Scotland would invariably qualify and invariably make a c@nt of things once there.

 

In those days there wasn't the blanket coverage we get nowadays where every single match is available live. We had 3 or 4 channels only so we only got live coverage of Scotland games ( and Guffland or Norn Irn if they too had qualified) plus selected other games deemed of interest...usually 1 game per group for each station though the later stages would get complete coverage. So we roughly got only half the coverage we do today.....obviously BBC Scotland or STV would cover our own games but Guffland/Norn Irn games would be covered by the nationwide broadcasters (ie Guffies).

[RicoS321]

What you have to realise is that TV coverage has changed somewhat since the bygone days of the 70s and 80s when Scotland would invariably qualify and invariably make a c@nt of things once there.

 

In those days there wasn't the blanket coverage we get nowadays where every single match is available live. We had 3 or 4 channels only so we only got live coverage of Scotland games ( and Guffland or Norn Irn if they too had qualified) plus selected other games deemed of interest...usually 1 game per group for each station though the later stages would get complete coverage. So we roughly got only half the coverage we do today.....obviously BBC Scotland or STV would cover our own games but Guffland/Norn Irn games would be covered by the nationwide broadcasters (ie Guffies).

 

Exactly, so it's not really relevant to the point I'm making then. Interesting nonetheless, I'm not criticising!

[rocket_scientist]

The English can be horrible race. I'm saying this as someone who has very good friends in and from England - so it's an obvious generalisation, albeit an accurate and valid one - but one of their most despicable traits is when collectively they are triumphalising.

 

They think that they are a superior race, their education system implicitly teaches them this, they boast about their "democracy" and "values" (an obvious farce to any reasonable external observer), they are proud of their empire (whilst conveniently forgetting that it no longer exists nor how they got it in the first place), they mistakenly believe that the royal family is somehow evidence of a superior class system (without having the intelligence to understand the inherent unfairness in the feudal system) so give them an inch, just an ounce of encouragement and they run wild.

 

How it's manifesting itself in very ugly fashion this world cup is how critical the English commentators and panels are of every other team in the competition. Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Portugal and now Germany are getting pelters, continuously. It's snide. It's sarcastic. It's condescending. It's ONLY been seen to this extent at this world cup because they believe that they're the best team in the competition and that they're going to win it, despite the only games they've played being against the great mights of Panama and Tunisia (against whom they only just scraped a win).

 

It's not by accident that the English are not popular in the rest of the world. You don't see Europeans holidaying in England as much as the English holiday in Europe. I despise their smugness and their deluded superiority and Lineker is the perfect pin-up for their sickness, even despite him having much more intelligence than the average bear and speaking good sense the vast majority of the time.

[Lencarl]

^

Just wait and see what happens if Germany go out of the Competition this afternoon. The smugness will be there for all to see.

[rocket_scientist]

Even if they do score in these last 20 minutes, the criticism and vilification of Germany is constant. It's unbelievable. 60 seconds can't pass without the English commentators implicitly saying "we're better than you". They don't know they're doing it, or more accurately, they don't know why they have an inbuilt need to do it.

 

Edit: another give-away is the exaggerated praise. A "beautiful ball" in to the box from Germany was average. A "great run" by a German on the flank wasn't. Their fallacy of fair play - another indoctrinated lie given to their national psyche - is revealing itself by their guilt in relentlessly bashing the multiple World Cup winners.

[Guest kiriakovisthenewstrachan]

Listening to Chris Sutton on radio 5.  He might as well have a bottle of champagne in front of him.

[rocket_scientist]

Lineker at the end summed both him and England up.

 

"Mein Gott. Auf Wiedersehn".

 

Delivered with the cheeky chappie cheeky grin that defines his arseholeness.

 

Germany won the first football match I ever saw live on colour TV, the 1974 WC final. They were a wonderful team, as were Holland back then, Gerd Muller, Paul Breitner and Franz Beckenbauer being supreme at their art. I've never hated Germany. I lived there for six years, I drove their cars for years (but changing to Sweden for our next new one), I admire their love of football and their national organisation at grassroots level, they never looked like an ugly football team to me and I can't even imagine what can inspire England to be so triumphalist tonight over them being put out in the group stages, as 4 of the last 5 champions have done.

 

But I understand Englishmen. They are outpouring decades of jealousy, a successful nation being an affront to their false sense of superiority. Fuck England. Fuck Lineker. Ugly ugly examples of the human condition.

[Kowalski]

Some cracking xenophobia on display in this thread. Going along the lines of “some of my very good friends are black” type rubbish is never a good start to the defense of an argument.

 

Anyway, people have criticised Germany? Wow. They’ve been horse shit.

[rocket_scientist]

Some cracking xenophobia on display in this thread. Going along the lines of “some of my very good friends are black” type rubbish is never a good start to the defense of an argument.

 

Anyway, people have criticised Germany? Wow. They’ve been horse shit.

 

You missed the point, as you always do.

 

Nobody's disputing that Germany were shite. It's something else being discussed. Something way above your tiny mind, your attention to detail being so weak that you thought he spelled it Linekar.

[manc_don]

Dutch coverage is always very anti German, including adverts, generally with war references. They also used to mention holland a lot of the time when they qualified for tournaments. Bbc coverage is far from unique. Christ, go to South America if you want to see one sided coverage. Personally I think it’s scots moaning for moaning sake. With a large scoop of jealousy. There’s bigger things to worry about, just sit back and enjoy them screw it up against mediocre opposition 

[manc_don]

Predictors would have taken a battering with those first couple of games. Brazil have been good but Serbia unfortunate not to have scored. Even the kiwis are laughing at the Germans going out. Amazed it’s registered. Was disappointed there wasn’t more laughing at the Aussies

[Kowalski]

Dutch coverage is always very anti German, including adverts, generally with war references. They also used to mention holland a lot of the time when they qualified for tournaments. Bbc coverage is far from unique. Christ, go to South America if you want to see one sided coverage. Personally I think it’s scots moaning for moaning sake. With a large scoop of jealousy. There’s bigger things to worry about, just sit back and enjoy them screw it up against mediocre opposition 

 

Agreed.

 

Disappointing to see Germany go out. Surely somebody can stop the guffs.

[RicoS321]

Dutch coverage is always very anti German, including adverts, generally with war references. They also used to mention holland a lot of the time when they qualified for tournaments. Bbc coverage is far from unique. Christ, go to South America if you want to see one sided coverage. Personally I think it’s scots moaning for moaning sake. With a large scoop of jealousy. There’s bigger things to worry about, just sit back and enjoy them screw it up against mediocre opposition 

 

Dutch coverage isn't forced upon Belgians or French though is it? That's the entire point.