Thursday 8 May 2008

30 hours of football on television.... good Lord no!

Yesterday I was watching the no.1 current affairs program on the box - yes, The Wright Stuff on channel 5.

Matthew Wright was complaining about the amount of Euro 2008 coverage that will be on the BBC and ITV despite the fact that no home nations will be in the finals. He then went on to suggest that this added up to a the sublimely large figure of 30 hours. Given that the tournament lasts about two weeks or so - surely this only adds up to 2 hours a day? If people really cannot find something better to do with their lives than watch television for 2 hours a day then I think we should start to worry. Have these people never heard of music, books, conversation - leaving the house?

I realise that some people will be miffed because EastEnders is on an hour late or something, but seriously I don't think it warranted a fifteen minute vitriolic campaign by Wrighty. In fact it bordered on xenophobia, suggesting that nobody would want to watch foreign teams playing, adding that only Polish immigrants are going to benefit. Now, I'm not a massive fan of football myself but I know that lots of people watch it for the sake of watching a game and seeing competitors at a high level. I'm sure that many people will pick a country that they are particularly fond of/tied in some way to and follow that instead.

And never mind all this, Wrighty failed to acknowledge the several million people in Britain who don't usually have a team in such competitions anyway, yet still have to put up with blanket coverage on the UK-wide television network.

Poor show Wrighty!

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