The live broadcasting of football matches has undergone significant facelifts down the years, no more so than in 1992 when BSkyB modernised the format beyond all recognition.
Each subsequent season has brought a fresh tweak or two, usually in a bid to make our viewing experience more ‘interactive’, and in truth there is nothing wrong with any of it. Really, it’s fine.
But still, these five seismic changes would enhance our Sunday afternoons considerably. Get it done Sky. Go for it TNT. Get with the programme ITV and BBC. You know you want to.
Talk Less
Let’s start with a simple one, an improvement that can be implemented immediately without any need for strategy meetings or structuring the new approach by committee.
To all you commentators out there, this is said with nothing but love but please, for goodness sake, shut up.
Elucidate on the action by all means. That’s your job. And feel free to add some occasional prose for the dramatic moments, along with a snippet of interesting information when required.
But there is simply no need to fill every second of airtime with inane chatter.
This goes double for co-commentators who seem to think their role entails having a ninety-minute conversation with their colleague.
We’re trying to watch a game here chaps.
Referee Interviews Post-Match
This is not about holding match officials to account.
Their job is difficult enough as it is without a reporter with an oversized mic playing judge and jury while the adrenaline is still pumping.
Even so, if we are to remain so incredibly hung up on contentious incidents, and if we are to get so irate based on nothing more than interpreting the interpretations of another person, doesn’t it make sense to cut through the confusion and get to the truth?
Get journalists Involved
Television’s obsession with having well-known faces filling their punditry chairs dates back to the Seventies, when larger-than-life characters such as Brian Clough and Malcolm Allison enthralled and outraged viewers in equal measure.
How we got from those footballing behemoths shouting the football odds to the bland former players of today is anyone’s guess, but if we are to dispense with entertaining personalities why not prioritise actual experts of the game who are utterly consumed by it?
Football journalists may not be ‘box-office’ but they’re well-versed in Manchester United’s new signing because they used to watch him in Italy.
Whereas a retired player, wearied by a life in the sport, relies on researchers before flicking through the latest Golf Monthly the minute the red light pings off.
We deserve better.
Embrace Statistics
We get it. Statistics are a turn-off for a key demographic, that demographic being our dads.
But data plays such a huge role in football these days it feels entirely remiss not to impart valuable and fascinating information as and when it comes to light.
Already we have commentators relaying possession stats when they’re especially pertinent, and that’s a start. Let’s go deeper though. Let’s get nerdy.
Imagine a red button option that details up-to-the-minute numbers on each team and individual player.
It would help no end with our in-game online betting choices for one thing though admittedly Twitter would be absolutely unbearable.
Embrace Go-Pro
Youri Tielemans’ Aston Villa debut pre-season was made memorable when he was fitted with a bodycam throughout, allowing fans to vicariously experience what it’s like to be in the heat of battle.
With television networks forever looking at new ways to make the game immersive it feels almost inevitable that something like this will be commonplace in the future, perhaps with a player chosen per game at random who can be cut to for replays or set-piece situations.
If we have the technology now though, why wait?
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to AP Photo*
