Round of 16: Colombia v England, 3rd July 7pm(GMT)

[JonBCFC]

The BBC is supposed to represent all of Britain not just England.

Don’t get the point you’re making here.

Would you prefer them to show replays of games the welsh and Scots lost during the qualifiers, during the World Cup coverage or what?

Seriously why wouldn’t a British broadcaster focus the majority of their attention on England during a World Cup that no other Home nation is in

 

[markwwfc1992]

The BBC is supposed to represent all of Britain not just England.

Ryan Giggs was on the other day.

 

[PuB]

Ryan Giggs also referred to England as 'us' and 'we'.

 

[WilsdenBantam]

We did, the quarter of a mill of you lot that couldn't wait to get out of the squalor you live in down there, to come up here, voted against it. Sabotaging a better existence for us all.

You are right here, well partly. My mothers best friend is Scottish and one of my neighbours, they were worried(as they should have been) that they might have had to go back to that flea infested bin you fester in. Plus the amount you scrounge off us you'd be bankrupt in months. It'd be like Mad Max, only with a far less attractive cast.

 

[WilsdenBantam]

Maybe they don’t legislate for sad anti- England twats in Scotland and Wales.

When these countries start representing Britain in these tournaments maybe they’ll get a bit of coverage.

Wales had Hartson and Savage, and Northern Ireland had Gerry Armstrong at the Euros. Not sure what they expect if they aren't in it.

 

[Benji]

Hello everyone. What I'm getting at is that Wales, Scotland and N Ireland absorb the same media as you guys, but the England players aren't our darlings. We aren't tuning in to games to hear about the England camp or England cheerleaders, but we aren't given an option.

It is a different situation to the inverse because, for example, Welsh games in qualifying won't be broadcast on the main channel but on BBC Wales only. There are also cultural and political reasons which means it runs a bit deeper. It's symptomatic of Wales being historically and politically marginalised by England and Westminster.

 

[Steve_Wafc]

I watched the Wales vs Ireland game to see who gets a spot in the play offs on Sky Sports. I was so pissed that they (and that’s including welshman Craig Bellamy and irishman Keith Andrews) didn’t once mention England the entire time.
It’s like, other nations exist guys..

 

[valefan16]

England is the vast majority of the U.K. population wise, if in the World Cup we will be the headline focus for the duration, unfortunately non of the other home nations have made it since 1998 so what should they do? Could have a red button option for an anti English broadcast to appease the other home nations I guess...

In the Euros the home nations got ample coverage and rightly so! In England many get behind the home nations anyway as we in the main don’t have that bitterness that comes the other way! (well until Wales lowered themselves to partying at England’s exit)

As for the Scottish chap I don’t know why people rise to it? Let’s be honest they laughed at us going out to Iceland yet their team couldn’t even qualify for an event with 24 qualification spots! No matter what England do we won’t have the shame of being the only British Isles nation sat at home during the Summer of 16! Should focus on his own countries failings rather than worry about ours...

 

[AFCB_Mark]

Well hopefully some of our fellow home nations can join in sooner or later, to dilute the England centric coverage. At the rate tournaments are being expanded it seems likely to happen. We might even get Scotland!

But seriously, I don't want to hear only wall to wall England, it gets repetitive and annoying with the same soundbites. And the more England specific coverage, the more room there is for the Merson-esq idiot comments.

Wales rightly drew widespread plaudits 2 years ago, their win over Belgium in particular was a big deal (England having gone out by then I think).

 

[PuB]

Ah yes, the summer of 2016 when Wales were the darlings of the media. I remember waking up and watching breakfast telly with them as the lead story, and then the lead story in the sports section (could you BELIEVE it). They were all over the back of our national papers, on TalkSport and SSN the whole time, they even had the audacity of showing the Welsh teams home-coming being celebrated. I mean what the actual fuck?

Made me physically sick.

 

[Benji]

Pat yourselves on the back for being so magnanimous about Wales' success in 2016, but it's simply not comparable in the inverse. England haven't been the persecuted party between the two countries during the last century. The Welsh rivalry with England isn't birthed from jealousy as you may believe. To be perhaps over-dramatic, it comes from England's cultural and linguistic genocide of Wales starting with the industrial revolution, and the political neglect of investment in Welsh areas in favour of England. The arrogance and bias of our national broadcaster is just the lightning rod.

And there's not even a comparison in terms of finance at their disposal. Hodgson was on 20x the salary of Coleman, who eventually went to Championship Sunderland for a better contract. England aren't plucky underdogs as Wales were, they're perennial underachievers and it's a lot harder to get behind that story.

 

[The Paranoid Pineapple]

England's cultural and linguistic genocide of Wales

Yes, I think that's perhaps a tad over-dramatic...

 

[Benji]

JUST SAYING

I doubt it's taught in schools in England, but it's taught here. The UK government treated Wales like a cash cow when we were producing the best coal in the world. The English flocked to the valleys for the work and then when it dried up, the cow was just left to die. The Welsh language was invalid for any formal documentation, and beaten out of children at school. It's still acceptable to debate, on national TV and radio, if there is any point in Welsh existing. It's just dying apparently, as if nobody or nothing was responsible.

 

[AnimoEtFide]

England's cultural and linguistic genocide of Wales

And now with Robbie Savage's World Cup Breakfast podcast, I think we can call it even.

 

[valefan16]

JUST SAYING

I doubt it's taught in schools in England, but it's taught here. The UK government treated Wales like a cash cow when we were producing the best coal in the world. The English flocked to the valleys for the work and then when it dried up, the cow was just left to die. The Welsh language was invalid for any formal documentation, and beaten out of children at school. It's still acceptable to debate, on national TV and radio, if there is any point in Welsh existing. It's just dying apparently, as if nobody or nothing was responsible.

The mining and being left to it is hardly Wales specific though? Pretty much swathes of Northern and Central English cities and regions endured the same with much investment in the country focused on the South East!

It’s only recently regeneration has been increased in industrial towns in England. What happened in Industrial Wales you can say the same for Sheffield, Stoke on Trent, Birmingham etc

 

[The Paranoid Pineapple]

People going on about the intensity of our play, or lack thereof, and Colombia’s lack of effort to play football — I really 100% believe that was down to the way we set up. We completely sucked the life out of them, never gave them any second ball opportunities, and generally made it very difficult to get the ball off us. The only downside is that the Alli-sterling-Lingard dynamic never really clicked — if it had, we’d be talking about one of the great England tournament performances. Really excellent management from Southgate for the most part.

Yeah, this was kinda my impression too. I think Colombia set up in quite a negative fashion, which didn't really aid their cause, but the shithouse tactics* seemed to be employed in response to the fact that England were in the ascendancy and they were struggling to gain a foothold in the game. I don't recall that much aggro from them before that Henderson headbutt incident and it then seemed to escalate after h-t.

The Alli-Sterling-Lingard dynamic and the failure to carve out chances from open play is a bit of a concern but I thought some of our play was encouraging. I think, all in all, England perhaps deserve a little more credit than they're receiving in some quarters. It very much had an away game vibe with England fans being greatly outnumbered, our players being booed when they were in possession, and yet they remained nice and composed (kept passing out from the back, for instance, rather than being panicked into hoofing it). What was quite cheering is that they by and large kept their heads - dealt well with the negative tactics (even gave them some back) and the psychological stuff surrounding the poor knockout tournament/penalty kick record. Some improvement needed in certain areas, but I came away feeling largely positive.

*thought the ref had a poor game in this regard. The penalty incident was maddening. He just let the Colombian players crowd him/scuff up the spot for several minutes. Just tell them to go away/card them if they don't, surely?

 

[The Paranoid Pineapple]

JUST SAYING

I doubt it's taught in schools in England, but it's taught here. The UK government treated Wales like a cash cow when we were producing the best coal in the world. The English flocked to the valleys for the work and then when it dried up, the cow was just left to die. The Welsh language was invalid for any formal documentation, and beaten out of children at school. It's still acceptable to debate, on national TV and radio, if there is any point in Welsh existing. It's just dying apparently, as if nobody or nothing was responsible.

As stated above though, post-industrial neglect isn't unique to Wales. There are many areas of England that have suffered in that regard.

I'm not saying there aren't legitimate grievances. I can understand that the coverage might be annoying in and of itself and also in the wider context that you refer to. But ultimately, I'm not entirely sure what broadcasters can be expected to do about that. 84% of the country reside in England and the games get huge audiences - 24m watched England v Colombia, the highest audience since the Olympics closing ceremony in 2012. Should they tone it down because a minority find it irritating, or should those that do perhaps accept that it's four weeks every four years? Getting caught up in all the excitement is what makes the tournament so enjoyable for so many.

 

[blademan89]

How fucking pathetic some of these Welsh and Scottish c*** are, I don't understand how you can care that much about another country. I loved it when Germany lost, it was brilliant but these bitter bastards put england before there own. SAD FUCKING WANKERS

 

[Nilsson]

The idea that you can't avoid content you don't want to consume these days is laughable. Especially when you're complaining on an INTERNET forum.

 

[Abertawe]

Yes, I think that's perhaps a tad over-dramatic...

You should read.

 

[Stevencc]

How fucking pathetic some of these Welsh and Scottish c*** are, I don't understand how you can care that much about another country. I loved it when Germany lost, it was brilliant but these bitter bastards put england before there own. SAD FUCKING WANKERS

Their own sides aren't in the competition which partly explains, though doesn't excuse, some of the ridiculously OTT shit being said in here.

I'm sure some of the Scottish and Welsh fans wouldn't give a toss about England's progress were their nations actually competing in the tournament.

Some still would.

 

[Super_horns]

Live footage of the shoot out from the Colombian point of view I think:

 

[Bobbin']

JUST SAYING

I doubt it's taught in schools in England, but it's taught here. The UK government treated Wales like a cash cow when we were producing the best coal in the world. The English flocked to the valleys for the work and then when it dried up, the cow was just left to die. The Welsh language was invalid for any formal documentation, and beaten out of children at school. It's still acceptable to debate, on national TV and radio, if there is any point in Welsh existing. It's just dying apparently, as if nobody or nothing was responsible.

It’s just a game of football mate.

 

[Stevencc]

To paraphrase David Bowie, "this ain't football, this is genocide".

 

[Benji]

I'm just pointing out why there may be negative feelings from Wales toward England and why it isn't an equivalent relationship. And it's not the bias in England games that is irritating, it's when the bunch of ex-England pros watch Sweden v Switzerland and say "Hur hur, not a match for our brave boys" when they're supposed to be commenting about the game.

 

[valefan16]

I'm just pointing out why there may be negative feelings from Wales toward England and why it isn't an equivalent relationship. And it's not the bias in England games that is irritating, it's when the bunch of ex-England pros watch Sweden v Switzerland and say "Hur hur, not a match for our brave boys" when they're supposed to be commenting about the game.

To be fair Pat Nevin who said based on Tuesday we'd beat them 99 times from 100 is Scottish!

 

[St. Juste]

What sort of media coverage would you want/expect considering there aren't any other home nations there? Every countries media team will be favourable to their own country.

Maybe they don’t legislate for sad anti- England twats in Scotland and Wales.

When these countries start representing Britain in these tournaments maybe they’ll get a bit of coverage.

As I have said throughout, clearly the only answer is completely separate coverage and this is an issue that goes far beyond football. Indeed a report recently came out saying that Scotland should get completely separate news coverage because a lot of the main stories don't apply to us in the slightest.

Take NHS, Justice or Schooling - any and all national news stories about these issues are about England and Wales, Scotland manages these things separately and these news stories don't apply in the slightest. Most 'headlines' don't apply to us - it's a ludicrous situation.

Regarding the football coverage, I have no particular issue with England bigging their players and team up. All nations do it. What I object is is random games defaulting at half time to find out the scoop from the England camp. Or 15 out of 22 minutes on national BBC breakfast being dedicated towards England football team.

As for saying we should not be bothered by it, fans on this site were complaining recently about the coverage Scottish football gets. Scottish football gets staggeringly little national UK coverage (women's football gets more), yet that is still too much for many.

As well as being footballs oldest rivalry it is excarcebated by fans from the other Home Nations being uniquely exposed to English biased coverage. The resolution is not asking them to stop, it's getting our own coverage.

And it would be far cheaper too, no reason for the studio to be in Moscow, for example.

Were all home nations to qualify for a tournament, there is a decent chance of this happening in the Euros, the coverage would still be 50% England, 20% Scotland, 20% Wales and 10% NI. And, say, Wales were to stay longer than England they would still be subject to Lineker and Shearer 'headlining'. Population wise the split is appropriate, even generous to other home nations, but it would still be frustrating from our point of view.

I was in Malta during some of the World Cup, that tiny island nation somehow managed their own coverage, why can't Scotland?

The people in England who don't think this is an issue think this because they have never experienced it. Surely the more reasonable ones see this as a problem? If not, it's absolutely staggering.

 

[Stevencc]

I can't see why you don't have your own completely separate news coverage already, I'd assumed that you had.

 

[PuB]

Seperate coverage of what though? Scotland players on their holiday?

 

[St. Juste]

As for the Scottish chap I don’t know why people rise to it? Let’s be honest they laughed at us going out to Iceland yet their team couldn’t even qualify for an event with 24 qualification spots! No matter what England do we won’t have the shame of being the only British Isles nation sat at home during the Summer of 16! Should focus on his own countries failings rather than worry about ours...

Not really, I would say England losing to Iceland finishing below Ireland in Euro 2016 qualifying.

Will England ever recover for 1974 and 1978 where they didn't qualify and Scotland did? I imagine most people don't even know about it.

The idea that you can't avoid content you don't want to consume these days is laughable. Especially when you're complaining on an INTERNET forum.

You can, but with some difficulty and not if you actually want to listen to commentary during the game.

To be fair Pat Nevin who said based on Tuesday we'd beat them 99 times from 100 is Scottish!

He knows what side his bread is buttered.

If he would be to say anything negative about England it would be his last report from the World Cup.