‘Jingoism’ of Wales and Scotland’s coverage at Euros ‘getting out of hand’ say Telegraph

The pro-Welsh and Scottish slant of coverage of the Euro 2020 championship is “getting out of hand,” and amounts to “jingoism” according to the Telegraph newspaper.

The newspaper’s TV columnist Alan Tyers criticised the “excessive” commentary of Robbie Savage at the Turkey v Wales game and the subdued commentary on the Czech Republic’s amazing second goal against Scotland at Hampden Park.

It comes after the same newspaper previously complained that coverage of Wales’ game against Turkey amounted to “one-eyed cheerleading” and condemned the BBC for “inflicting” Robbie Savage onto their screens.

“Henry Blofeld told this writer a few years ago that his very first producer at the BBC had warned him: ‘the first day you refer to England as ‘we’ is the last day you work here.’ It would be P45s all round if they tried that at Euro 2020,” Alan Tyers said.

“Nobody is looking to Robbie Savage for sober assessment, but his work on Wales vs Turkey was excessive, while the all-Scottish pundit crew’s portrayal of the Patrik Schick wondergoal as a tragic accident served no-one.

“Folk from Wales and Scotland might justifiably argue they’ve had a lifetime of sports commentators assuming the punter is an England supporter, but this fans-with-microphones fashion is getting out of hand, and cuddly jingoism is jingoism nonetheless.”

He went on to note that “Graeme Souness and his teeth dominating the screen during the England vs Scotland match, to the extent that even Roy Keane was pushed onto the back foot. Ian Wright has thus far been subdued.”

‘Emotion’

Alan Tyler’s comments for the paper follow those of sports commentator Daniel Schofield who complained that the analysis in the Turkey v Wales game “was less a considered breakdown of Rob Page’s tactics than an exercise in one-eyed cheerleading that some cyclops would consider excessive”.

“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,” he wrote.

“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.”

However, Daniel Schofield does concede at the end of the article that perhaps England fans are only having to tolerate what Welsh and Scottish fans have put up with for decades.

“There will be no shortage of Welsh, Scottish and Irish readers happy to point out for much of the past 20 years they have had to put up with an overwhelming favouritism being shoved down their throat every time England are involved in a major tournament,” he ends.

“Which is true. Who knew that karma would come with blond locks and skinny jeans?”