This isn't so much a blog as a response to this week's TheGame Podcast, the excellent weekly audio release from the football writers at The Times.
Much of this week's podcast was taken up by discussion of the 3pm television blackout, which operates to the effect that football cannot be shown live between 14:45 and 17:15 on Saturdays, except for the FA Cup and Scottish Cup Finals. The podcast host Gabriele Marcotti is clearly opposed to this rule, as I am, but for different reasons. His motivation seems to be one of libertarian principle, which I don't share; mine are practical.
My curiosity is always roused when this topic is raised – almost always by Marcotti, who appears to be the only football journalist in Britain who ever wants to discuss the subject – because I have always been convinced that no such rule exists. I have watched much live football during this period on normal British television – without fancy satellites and foreign cable connections, which Marcotti occasionally alludes to – in England.
In January, for example, ITV4 showed the opening match of the Africa Cup of Nations live on a Saturday with a 4pm kick-off (British time). Subsequent matches from the same tournament were similarly shown on British EuroSport – I recall flicking between Côte d'Ivoire vs Tunisia and the FA Cup 4th round updates on Final Score on BBC One. So the blackout is clearly not a hard-and-fast 'rule'.
It is also inconsistently adhered to. Sky Sports frequently show 5pm Spanish league matches but don't join the action until 15 minutes in, – on one occasion, this involved them joining a match between Real Sociedad and Barcelona only after Barça had taken a 2-0 lead – suggesting they regard the blackout as the law and the prophets. Yet Welsh matches appear on S4C on Saturday afternoons regularly.
If it is the case, as some forum contributors assert, that the blackout only applies to English and Scottish football, then why do Sky apply it to their La Liga coverage? This issue is particularly newsworthy this week as Saturday's Clásico between Real Madrid and Barcelona kicks off at 3pm (UK) but will only be shown 'as-live' at 8pm, by which time we'll probably all know the result.
Yet there are stories of EuroSport being fined for showing Ligue 1 or Serie B matches on a Saturday. Given that it is so difficult to pin down exactly what the rule is and to whom it applies, it seems strange that no broadcaster has challenged it. If ever there were a rule ripe for being overturned in the European courts, this would appear to be it. Perhaps Sky do not wish to rock the boat by giving football's governing bodies something to hold against them when it comes to future rights bidding.
It clearly isn't doing broadcasters much harm, as evidenced by the ever-soaring amounts of money being paid for Premier League rights in the UK. Further instances of it broken have hardly defied even my half-arsed research today – the FA Trophy Final in 2010 shown live on ITV4, the Olympic men's final between Brazil and Mexico on BBC One when there were SPL matches at the same time – so perhaps the question is not whether the rule should exist, but whether anybody cares.
Wednesday 27 February 2013
Monday 4 February 2013
Six Nations kicks off with a bang
The road to madness is paved with the splattered brains of sports commentators who have read too much into the opening match of a World Cup, the first round at Wimbledon, or the first Grand Prix of the year. For that reason, this column does not speculate that a long-awaited return to expansive rugby as standard in the international game is upon us. Yet there can only be a cautious satisfaction at the quality of fare in the first three matches of the 2013 Six Nations Championship.
The weekend began with what now feels almost part of the furniture in the Test arena: a home defeat for Wales. Wales won the Grand Slam in 2012, which they have followed up by losing eight Tests in a row. Wales's last win of any description was against the Barbarians on 2 June last year.
And yet in very few of these matches were Wales pulverized. They lost their summer series in Australia 3-0, yet should have won two of those games. In the Autumn they had a nightmare, yet only Argentina beat them convincingly. A late try did for them against Samoa, they emerged with credit following a two-try second-half rally against the rampant (at the time) New Zealand and were 12-9 up against Australia at the death, before Kurtley Beale's last-gasp try broke Millennium Stadium hearts.
Wales-Ireland was not quite a game of two halves. Ireland dominated for the first 45 minutes, Wales for the final 35; which is probably why Ireland won. As a spectacle, it was splendid, illuminated by Irish win Simon Zebo, who followed his early try with an audacious mid-air backheel that turned a shoddy pass into, ultimately, a try for prop Cian Healy.
Over the Calcutta Cup hung the question: can England maintain their momentum from their spectacular Autumn triumph over New Zealand? Another 38-point haul was forthcoming, lit up by a dazzling England midfield. Those words have not been written often in the last decade but, in fly-half Owen Farrell and débutant inside centre Billy Twelvetrees, they had a partnership capable of ripping holes in Scotland's defence.
There is a moment in "House of Cards", the peerless British political drama of the early 1990s based on the Michael Dobbs novel, when journalist Mattie Storrin speculates that the Tory conference is 'happening in code', that it is 'really about something else'. This championship is similar; the great debate over the British & Irish Lions squad continues throughout.
So give thanks, then, that the embryonic championship is proving enthralling in its own right. England's deserve credit for beating convincingly a Scotland side who did not at all play badly, and for whom full-back Stuart Hogg and No 8 Johnnie Beattie put in outstanding performances that should give cause for second thoughts to those who speculate that the summer's touring party to Australia will have a Scottish contingency that could arrive at Heathrow airport in a Mini Cooper.
England's scrum half Ben Youngs was back to his best, the marvellous Geoff Parling try coming from his break and a raking long pass from Farrell. England go to Dublin ahead of next Sunday's encounter at Lansdowne Road with a spring in their step.
Speculation that this might be the best opening weekend in Six Nations history became solid certainty on Sunday afternoon when the Italians deservedly beat France in the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. There was plenty of graft and grind but also evidence that Italy can, on occasion, produce moments of attacking brilliance. The move that led to Sergio Parisse's opening try was quite wonderful and would have graced the Stade de France or Eden Park.
France must visit Ireland and England and already have little chance of winning the tournament. Yet perhaps the most interesting fixture next weekend is Scotland vs Italy, perhaps no longer a wooden spoon play-off in all but name. Scotland must get more possession than they did at Twickenham; they showed enough in England to convince that they now know how to score tries. The constant fall in try-scoring in the Six Nations is much-lamented, but the opening three fixtures offered a mere hint that defences may no longer be on top.
The weekend began with what now feels almost part of the furniture in the Test arena: a home defeat for Wales. Wales won the Grand Slam in 2012, which they have followed up by losing eight Tests in a row. Wales's last win of any description was against the Barbarians on 2 June last year.
And yet in very few of these matches were Wales pulverized. They lost their summer series in Australia 3-0, yet should have won two of those games. In the Autumn they had a nightmare, yet only Argentina beat them convincingly. A late try did for them against Samoa, they emerged with credit following a two-try second-half rally against the rampant (at the time) New Zealand and were 12-9 up against Australia at the death, before Kurtley Beale's last-gasp try broke Millennium Stadium hearts.
Wales-Ireland was not quite a game of two halves. Ireland dominated for the first 45 minutes, Wales for the final 35; which is probably why Ireland won. As a spectacle, it was splendid, illuminated by Irish win Simon Zebo, who followed his early try with an audacious mid-air backheel that turned a shoddy pass into, ultimately, a try for prop Cian Healy.
Over the Calcutta Cup hung the question: can England maintain their momentum from their spectacular Autumn triumph over New Zealand? Another 38-point haul was forthcoming, lit up by a dazzling England midfield. Those words have not been written often in the last decade but, in fly-half Owen Farrell and débutant inside centre Billy Twelvetrees, they had a partnership capable of ripping holes in Scotland's defence.
There is a moment in "House of Cards", the peerless British political drama of the early 1990s based on the Michael Dobbs novel, when journalist Mattie Storrin speculates that the Tory conference is 'happening in code', that it is 'really about something else'. This championship is similar; the great debate over the British & Irish Lions squad continues throughout.
So give thanks, then, that the embryonic championship is proving enthralling in its own right. England's deserve credit for beating convincingly a Scotland side who did not at all play badly, and for whom full-back Stuart Hogg and No 8 Johnnie Beattie put in outstanding performances that should give cause for second thoughts to those who speculate that the summer's touring party to Australia will have a Scottish contingency that could arrive at Heathrow airport in a Mini Cooper.
England's scrum half Ben Youngs was back to his best, the marvellous Geoff Parling try coming from his break and a raking long pass from Farrell. England go to Dublin ahead of next Sunday's encounter at Lansdowne Road with a spring in their step.
Speculation that this might be the best opening weekend in Six Nations history became solid certainty on Sunday afternoon when the Italians deservedly beat France in the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. There was plenty of graft and grind but also evidence that Italy can, on occasion, produce moments of attacking brilliance. The move that led to Sergio Parisse's opening try was quite wonderful and would have graced the Stade de France or Eden Park.
France must visit Ireland and England and already have little chance of winning the tournament. Yet perhaps the most interesting fixture next weekend is Scotland vs Italy, perhaps no longer a wooden spoon play-off in all but name. Scotland must get more possession than they did at Twickenham; they showed enough in England to convince that they now know how to score tries. The constant fall in try-scoring in the Six Nations is much-lamented, but the opening three fixtures offered a mere hint that defences may no longer be on top.
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