Tuesday, 15 June 2010
Am I the only one ...
... who is thoroughly repulsed by the general atmosphere surrounding this World Cup? The grotesque Anglo-supremacy and centricity of the commentators ("everybody loves an underdog" when New Zealand scored in injury time against Slovakia - subtext: THEY ARE THE MASTERS YOU ARE THE MASTERS SLOVAKIA WILL JUST BE BLOODY COMMIES FOREVER - Tyldesley still going on about Ayresome Park and 1966 THREE FUCKING MINUTES after North Korea had scored), the universal hatred of the vuvuzelas as if every World Cup should be held in England, or at least have an atmosphere indistinguishable from the Reebok Stadium or somewhere - it's hideous, and the antithesis of everything the World Cup is supposed to be about. RTE must be better, surely?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The commentary has indeed often been terrible; at times utterly presumptious - e.g. during the Algeria-Slovenia game, comments to the effect of 'well, they might try and give the USA a run for their money', regarding Slovenia. Just assuming that the USA are an automatic fit for second place (as well as assuming England will automatically win the group).
ReplyDeleteThis flies in the face of the footballing evidence so far, and is indeed UK-US centric as ever.
I've never "got" football. Watching total strangers play football makes about as much sense to me as watching total strangers play Connect Four or Monopoly. I can quite understand how much fun it must be for the participants and their immediate family but watching people I've never met run about on a lawn leaves me cold.
ReplyDeleteThis is Carmodising a bit too far, Robin. New Zealand *were* underdogs. It was their first ever point in a World Cup, and many of their players have other occupations. Also, vuvuzelas are loud and annoying. To claim there is some deeper reason for people's antipathy to them reminds me of your comment that the press only criticised Erikson because he was from a social democratic country.
ReplyDeleteRTE would be more your bag, I'd say - hyperbolic negativity all the way!
"hyperbolic negativity" = not thinking you're still a great power and approaching a global event as if you were
ReplyDeleteI'm well aware that NZ were underdogs - the point I am making is that British broadcasters did not get behind other underdogs in the World Cup, and assume that their viewers would want those underdogs to do well, in the same way.
Oh, and I may have exaggerated re. Eriksson, but I do think he was unfairly abused - he got England to three consecutive quarter-finals, which if anything is *above* their natural level.
ReplyDelete