133 complaints to BBC about pro-English bias at Euros final
The BBC received over 100 complaints from football fans about pro-English bias in their coverage of the Euro 2020 final.
The 113 fans thought that the coverage of the final, which England lost against Italy, was too skewed towards the hosts.
Former England players Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, Frank Lampard and Rio Ferdinand fronted coverage of the final.
The BBC responded by pointing out that coverage of Wales and Scotland’s games had been similarly fronted by pundits from those teams.
“This year, our Euro team features a line-up of England, Scotland, and Wales experts, including Alan Shearer, Rio Ferdinand, Micah Richards, Alex Scott, Jermaine Jenas, Mark Hughes, Ashley Williams, Robbie Savage, James McFadden and Shelley Kerr,” they said.
“We are proud of the expertise and experience that our team are bringing to football fans across the UK, and don’t agree that our line-up shows any bias towards any one team.
“‘We appreciate that not everyone will enjoy every one of our presenters, pundits, or commentators, but we are proud of the range of talent and expertise our Euros 2020 team bring to our coverage.”
‘One-eyed cheerleading’
England however wasn’t the only nation to draw complaints that shows were biased in their favour, with the Telegraph earier complaining that coverage of Wales’ games were too biased towards them.
Coverage of Wales’ game against Turkey amounted to “one-eyed cheerleading” according to the Telegraph newspaper, which condemned the BBC for “inflicting” Robbie Savage onto their screens.
“This analysis was less a considered breakdown of Rob Page’s tactics than an exercise in one-eyed cheerleading that some cyclops would consider excessive,” Daniel Schofield, who is billed as the paper’s rugby reporter, wrote.
“To be clear this is not Savage’s fault. ‘Paschun’ and the wearing of heart on his sleeve like cufflinks is as much part of his brand as his suspicious all-year round tan. Instead it is the BBC who must bear responsibility for inflicting Savage upon our ears.
“Putting Savage on co-commentary and expecting dispassionate erudite analysis is like giving a Rottweiler a bunny rabbit and hoping they become friends. This is the deliberate direction of travel, not just from the BBC but from ITV, Sky and BT Sport.
“From celebrating a five-yard pass to disputing every decision that went against his team, Savage did a grand job of embodying the emotions of every Wales supporter watching the game.”
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Getting boring………………………
The UK is London-centric and Anglo-centric and anyone who expects the “entitled” English ruling elite to accord respect to anyone is in for a long long wait. Even after Wales is free we’ll need to endure noisy and self important neighbours just like other nearby nations. I suspect that the 133 complaints are a drop in the ocean of people annoyed by this…. 133K would be more like it.
Of course the coverage would be pro-English. Same as coverage of our matches would be pro Cymru. Although admittedly a bunch of Tories did whine about ITV coverage of our matches being pro-Welsh, so turnabout is fair play
I have learnt from experience there is no point complaining to the BBC, we just get Englishplaining about why we should not be offended.
Why would you be offended by English people supporting England?I am not ,I watched all of Wales’ games on S4C,the coverage was rightly patriotic but they really did not have much to shout about.
A country of just over 3 million people where football isn’t the national sport getting to the last 16 not having much to shout about is a bit of a bizarre idea.
I am not at all offended by English people supporting England, and why would I be? That is not what I said, please read what I wrote and you will see that I said there is no point complaining to the BBC.
There’s nothing wrong with English presenters and pundits being pro-England. Lets not act as if S4C was impartial and objective. They were proudly pro-Wales and rightly so.
The problem is that we have to consume the English media. Time for media to be devolved!
Rai is pro-Italy, RTÉ is pro-Ireland, TF1 is pro-France, RTBF is pro-Belgium, it’s not exactly unusual that the BBC is pro-England.
What is unusual is people in Wales and Scotland thinking something like the BBC actually represents them and their interests lol.
I have no proble with English pundits being one-sided in a match that was important for their country. If I’d watched the match (which I didn’t) I would have looked at it as the price I pay for the sheer pleasure of listening to Robbie Savage enthusing about our own national team. I’d feel cheated if a Welsh pundit didn’t big Cymru up in such circumstances, and if Savage’s patriotism annoys the Daily Telegraph, that’s an added bonus.
Surely the BBC should have been pro-Wales in the Euro2020 final. Oh hang on…