Not the most riveting of games tonight, but up and down Scotland people were - as is customary when England play - making their own entertainment by holding sweepstakes on how long into the match it would be before ITV commentator Clive Tyldesley deemed it utterly essential to remind us of the fact that his country won the World Cup in 1966. As it turned out, the drinks were on those who chose the 'three seconds' option.
Really.
To (only very slightly) misquote the words in question - "For most of you watching, 1966 is just a legend. But for me, it's my entire script."
LOL.
ReplyDeleteWhen you are really crap at something, one wee win, even if it was pre history, is a very big deal.
That said Scotland's not got much to crow about there either.....
But 3 seconds.... wow
He is such an awful commentator. I think it's a bit over the top when people claim a commentator "ruins" games for them, but he certainly comes pretty close.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking recently that one of the "fringe benefits" of Scottish independence would hopefully be an end to having to watch sports coverage which is aimed at an English audience. People often say that the pro-England bias we see is probably not exclusive, and that other countries probably have the same towards their teams. That's true (I particularly can't imagine Brazilian coverage being very impartial), but the difference is that in footballing terms, there is no such thing as the United Kingdom, so we are effectively being shown another country's coverage, just like if Portugal had to use Spanish coverage.
Never mind, even without Scotland being at the World Cup, it can still provide us with new heroes, such as Rob Green.
Doug, I always think that English people should try to imagine what it would be like if their only World Cup coverage was provided by German TV, and if the presenters and commentators insisted on talking at them as if they ARE GERMAN (after all, there's no real difference between 'Germany' and 'Europe', right?).
ReplyDeleteThe tendency to support 'anyone but England' would disappear overnight if the 'UK media' simply started doing what it says on the tin.