by Alexander Litvinenko »
04 Oct 2012 11:00
The point is someone who is performing his role needs to be be impartial (not about the club he supports but about the players in it.) He is employed to a be a communicator telling people what happened - not to broadcast his own opinions and to shout down people who disagree with them. It's unprofessional in the extreme that he has favourite players and presents his views and opinions to show them in a good light. Put more simply, he's not an authoritative source - his authority gets diluted by the weight of his opinions.
Secondly, the amount of stuff about football that he doesn't know - but insists he does, is excruciatingly embarrassing at times. So often he'll go off on a rant about something until he's corrected by Mick Gooding and then the whole subject is quietly dropped. A perfect example not so long ago was when he went off on one about the Fourth Official not allowing enough time, and he was adamant that it was the Fourth Official who decided how much time should be added on and then told the referee of his decision. He ranted for a good few minutes, Mick G corrected him, there was a muttered apology and then it wasn't mentioned again. This sort of thing is quite common, and very hard to listen to.
Not only do I think commentators need to authoritative sources, I think they need to know their stuff. Or, at least, if they don't know their stuff then to realise that they don't and don't use the airwaves to broadcast the depth of their ignorance.
Anyone who wants opinions, ignorance, conjecture and prejudices only has to talk to any other supporter - I want the key public service broadcaster to offer something a bit better than a fan with a microphone stuck in front of them. And in my book an excess of enthusiasm does not make up for a lack of expertise.