By Tony Attwood
This article, which I suspect will turn out to be the start of a series, is about the way football is reported, why the way it is reported in the UK is biased, and how this biased reporting is affecting the way many people see the game.
As such it doesn’t jump straight into Arsenal matters, but the background introduction is I think important. Important because it is always difficult to consider that there could be whole issues that the media is, in unison, not commenting upon. It just sounds so “conspiracy theory” that no one is seriously going to believe it (apart from conspiracy theorists).
But in all reporting, there is a choice of what subjects are covered. This of course is how it has always been – I recall how back in the pre-internet heyday of paid-for local evening newspapers when the day’s edition was sent for printing at around 1230pm, the editorial team would wait anxiously for the 1pm news on the BBC to see if they had picked the same headline stories, as would appear in the first editions of the local paper a couple of hours later.
Of course, in all areas of reporting, there are the occasional scoops, but even so the agenda in any particular field of reporting – such as football – is by and large universally agreed. And agreed not because of its obvious importance, but because of the ease with which the media can cover the matter, and the level of support and information given to journalists covering the story. Asking questions that no one else does, is not the media’s normal approach especially when there are freebies on offer.
In short, if clubs like Arsenal didn’t give free passes and special seats to journalists for every match, the stories about the club and its matches would change radically.
But by and large the media sticks to the same stories and the same approach to football, and this means not just all reporting the same stories, but also all omitting the same stories. And this is a key point in the answer I give to people who ask “why do you go on and on and on about things like refereeing and there being no regulator of football?” I think noting and understanding the topics that are never covered in the media, but which are central to our understanding of football, is vital.
By and large the football media in the UK ignores stories that …
a) Are complex and based on intricate research. We might think of the way crowds affect refereeing decisions: the research shows this is true, but is ignored or even contradicted by the media.
b) No one else in the mainstream is looking at. For example, some news outlets cover Fifa’s multiple corruption cases, but none then go on to challenge whether Fifa is fit for purpose. The FA totally screwed up with the Euro final at Wembley, but no one seemed to ask why arrangements were so poor, and why the FA was allowed just to continue as before.
c) Suggest that football in England is not quite as far above suspicion as is suggested by the daily reporting of football in broadcast, print and online media and that there might be something fundamentally wrong with football. Clearly appalling things have happened (child sex abuse is one such and with situations like that who needs another example?) but the aim is to keep this separate so that everyone can pretend that everything in football is fine.
d) Make professional football in England look less than wholesome and the envy of the world.
Indeed given that run down of what cannot be reported, it quickly becomes clear that in the sense that all the media choose to ignore certain key issues, football reporting in the UK is corrupted.
For when the media settles down into a situation in which almost everyone shares the same opinion, and decides that certain topics are simply not worthy of debate, then it really does start to seem that there is something amiss.
About referees… I was tuning in on the Brighton match against Liverpool. Fabinho committed an assault on Ferguson and kicked him off the field. You could see on the face of Fabinho that he was really embarrased with his own tackle and that he knew it was a red card all day and night long. But the ref only gave a yellow. I thought… oh well there will be no VAR present. But to my surprise when Brighton scored the winning goal… there suddenly was a VAR check on a possible offside…. how on earth did VAR not call over the ref to have a look at that insane tackle from Fabinho… well it is beyond me..
I agree with you Walter. In fact this was the third bad challenge by Liverpool in the last 10 minutes of the game. One was given a yellow, which seemed lenient. The other, which prevented a clear scoring opportunity and should have therefore been a red card, was not even penalised.
The Brighton winning goal was poetic justice, especially as even VAR could not invent a pretext for ruling it out.
Walter
Not sure if you get the UK commentary but even they were sure a red was to ensue as indeed we were told VAR was reviewing the assault. There was lots of sharp intakes of breath as we saw time and again quite how poor the tackle was. We heard nothing for 2 or 3minutes as the player was attended. Then as we resumed there was a cursory, ‘Oh the VAR check is complete’. Not a word of utter disbelief from the commentators, as I’m sure there would of been with everyone else who witnessed it.
But there was 2 other diabolical refereeing decisions.
A last man assault on a Brighton player that didn’t even warrant a free kick. Again the commentators knew it should of been a freekick and a last man red. But again no outrage at such a poor decision.
And then another potential ankle breaker that only received a yellow. Again the commentators knew. But no outrage just the ‘On another day….’ mumbled comment.
Three absolute nailed on red cards not given. Two should of been looked at and acted on by VAR but nothing.
Nothing from the ref. Nothing from VAR. No outrage from the commentators.
Liverpool totally out of the title race. Just how much did these officials want Liverpool to progress in the FA Cup?
Well, despite the disgraceful behaviour of the Liverpool players. The contemptable performance of the Referee. The joke that is VAR. And the utter complicity of the commentators, Brighton snatched a well deserved last minute winner.
Sorry John, was typing as your went up.
Nitram
I’m outraged that you’re outraged that the commentators were not outraged.
Absolutely outrageous.
Coote utterly pathetic. I cannot find out who the VAR stooge was. He is as much to blame as Coote. Was wondering how Mitoma’s sublime goal would be ruled out.
Earlier Alexander-Arnold bodychecked Mitoma and the hapless Coote was completely unaware.
Justice was ultimately done.
Mick
The officiating was dire, that goes without saying, but the commentators lack of outrage is what gets me. If we had got away with that, which is highly unlikely in the first place, the commentators would of apoplectic.
There would of been no doubt left in anyone’s mind, especially the officials for future reference, that Arsenal had got away with it, big time, and would be due some pay back.
Now they may of made more of it after the game? Someone could tell us?
They may make more of it on MOTD tonight or in the media tomorrow?
I have my doubts, but we shall see.
It is utterly disgraceful that so little fuss was made by the commentators regarding the appalling officiating, both on field and VAR, during the Brighton/Liverpool game. As usual the scousers got away with murder with the full approval of the media. Compare that to the regular critical comments made by the commentators about Artetas touchline misdemeanours’ every five minutes throughout the game against Man City. I am so pleased that Liverpool got knocked out and lets hope they suffer the same fate in the Champions League.
Neil Swarbrick was on VAR Scott Ledger his asssistant – leave your phone numbers – we’ll be in touch!
Leonard you really have lost your ability to be provocative, even though I generally disagreed with you. Now you are (and of course this is just my opinion) just plain silly. And rather dull.
Keith Hackett was less than enthusiastic about Coote’s performance on Twitter.
Swarbrick is PGMOL’s Head of VAR implementation in the Premier League. The most recent entry on his Wikipedia page states:-
“His use of VAR and understanding of the game of football was called into question during the all premier league FA Cup tie between Brighton and Liverpool.”
Let that sink in.
Surely another omission from the reported subjects in the media is the issue of Performance Enhancing Drugs and the testing for them?
My only 2 memories of this issue, within the Prem, are the fella that went shopping and the other that transferred to Italy and failed a test, both United players.
I believe it very suspicious that teams can be physically on fire for a season or two, even win titles or lose champs league finals, then totally drop off the cliff energy and aggression wise and completely lose their edge.
This is a very dark area in the sports world generally and there is some little attention being brought to what could be conceived as a drop in life expectancy for athletes as some are dying surprisingly young.
Sorry I missed out that unpopular Chelsea chap that they sacked.