Monday, November 21, 2022

Game One

I tuned into BBC for the first game of the World Cup yesterday afternoon.

Kick off was at 4PM GMT. However, the coverage began at 3PM. I thought I would catch the opening ceremony.

I thought wrong.

Instead of covering the ceremony, the BBC had Gary Lineker and company in the studio talking about England and Wales before turning their attention to the Qatar versus Ecuador opener.

The tone of the BBC was fair. To a degree. The coverage spoke of Qatar's dreadful human rights track record and I surmise the decision was made not to air the opening ceremony as a way to bow down to potential sportswashing.

I have a slight problem with that agenda, though.

If the Corporation felt this strongly about Qatar, why did it bother sending staff over to cover the games? It would have sent a better message if they stayed home and presented the games from a studio. 

That would have been the easy option, no?

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