The commentator is stepping back from Sky after three decades and his perennial presence and enthusiasm will be missedAt Sky Sports, they still called him “the Voice”. Richard Keys, the long-serving anchorman to Martin Tyler in the commentary box, claimed this weekend this was because Tyler “definitely didn’t have a face for TV” – throwing us back to a now distant, coarser era of broadcasting.At 77, Tyler is the perennial who floated above the eras. Viewers of 40-plus will recall his career extending far further back than before football began in 1992. At both the 1982 and 1986 World Cups, Tyler acted as ITV’s main commentator while Brian Moore stayed in a London studio before flying out for the latter...
Televised football has gone only one way in the attention economy with more chatter and voices but perhaps less is more Somewhere in a reinforced concrete bunker in the northern hemisphere, Paul Dempsey is still talking. He was talking long before you turned the television on and you can be sure he’ll be talking long after you turn it off. He’s got a list of names in front of him, stats and facts, reserves of time and patience that will outlast any human, living or dead.Here’s Lautaro Martínez, who has never scored a volley in October. Lays it off to Francesco Caputo, who owns four hats. That’s Jackson Borck on the Sampdoria bench, who joined in the summer from Fighting...
He did not rant, laugh or ‘destroy’ anybody: Mark Lawrenson reached back to when sport on TV was still light entertainmentThis is no tribute. In many ways to break out the violins for Mark Lawrenson would really be to miss the true essence of the man. You may even have missed his retirement last week amid the opera of season-ending farewells. Divock Origi gets a guard of honour at Anfield. Mike Dean gets a 1,500-word valedictory feature in the Athletic. Lawrenson, by contrast, simply slipped away with a droop of the shoulders and very possibly a wry quip about not letting the door hit him on the way out.Which does feel a little strange, even when you take into account...
The widely loved Scot and the apoplectic Irishman dominated fans’ discussions this week, ahead of the games they coveredIt’s approaching half-time at Elland Road on Tuesday night and Leeds United have a free-kick deep in the Crystal Palace half, about halfway between the corner flag and the penalty area. It could only be described as “in a dangerous position”. Raphinha stands over it.“This is going to get whipped in with unbelievable pace, that’s my prediction,” says a supremely confident Ally McCoist. The Brazilian raises his right hand and proceeds to smash the ball about 30 yards over everyone and out for a goal-kick. Continue reading...
BBC panel set a sensitive standard early on and analysts ranging from Alex Scott to Robbie Savage have had a good Euro 2020While it has fielded almost 6,500 complaints for the intrusive nature of its coverage of the successful attempts to resuscitate Christian Eriksen following his collapse during Denmark’s opening Euro 2020 match against Finland, on reflection the BBC’s coverage of what might have been a tragedy seemed touchingly deft.In its subsequent apology to those upset by images of the stricken player receiving medical attention, the national broadcaster pointed out it had no control over coverage provided by Uefa as host broadcaster and claimed it had taken its coverage off air “as quickly as possible” once the match had been...