You could indeed. I've said upon this very forum that I'm a huge fan of the BBC overall and believe it delivers fantastic value for money, but when it comes to football pundits and commentators I really do wonder if someone's taking the piss. Motson? Claridge? Green? Pleat?
Let me tell you about David Pleat. I can't remember if it was the last world cup or the last Euro's, however, I sat in disbelief listening to his co-commentary. He kept referring to the Czech Republic as Czechoslovakia. Obviously someone on the bridge had had a word in his earpiece which meant he spent the rest of the match calling them "The Republic of Czechoslovakia". Utter 4uckwit

A pal of mine has worked with the boy Linekar btw, and apparently he's an arrogant, obnoxious, bully of a man that talks to staff as though they're shit!

BBC pisses all over Sky and its awful, syndicated content in everything but football. The BBC tv coverage of our beautiful game is dreadful at the moment. I blame the jobs for the boys culture that replaced the professionals with a raft of ex-players. It wasn't ever thus, but the Lineker-Hansen-Shearer-Lawrenson love in baffles me. They're shit.

Can't agree

Sky coverage of golf and cricket is streets ahead of BBC.

Much the same with Rugby Union

BBC sadly only ever react when forced by competition.

They all have idiot presenters mixed in with the decent ones.

BTW - greatly surprised, but I have to admit to liking Danny Mills as a summariser - whichever channel he is on

As said earlier, 'Irish' isn't a race. Singling 'them' out to be so is actually inadvertent 'racism' in my book.

When I say racism, I actually mean xenophobia. As should you

I've met Lawro too - came across as a fairly nice ordinary bloke with no obvious arrogance or pretentiousness..

And no obvious tash?

not when the day was done - no!

I'm not going to comment on this anymore. This is too emotive to get into on a footall forum. Let's just get back to agreeing that Alan Green is an annoying feck.

I still quite like him.

Wel you're outvoted william!

btw shearer last night...ballotelli has achieved nothing apparentley

I'v always been puzzled by the bizarre semantic argument that goes on whenever the word racism crops up. I'm not sure the meaning of the word 'racism' is necessarily to be interpreted by a wholly strict definition of the word 'race'. As with all language, it is very rarely a case of look it up in the OED and that is what it means, nothing more, nothing less. More importantly the discussion then changes as to whether or not a comment is 'racist' as opposed to 'xenophobic' instead of whether or not it is 'legit'. FWIW, I think the word 'race' can actually be used to describe a group of people who each share an 'identity' such as a nationality. For instance, 'the characteristics of the French race' is not a phrase which seems inherently wrong.

In this debate the meaning of the word xenophobic has actually become forgotten. It means a fear or dislike of foreigners, not a fear or dislike of a certain group of foreigners. Were you to hate somebody because they weren't English, or British, that would be xenophobic, if you were to hate somebody because they specifically were of a certain race, that would be racism. So comments made against 'the Irish' are certainly closer to 'racist' than 'xenophobic' if indeed they are either. That, IMO depends on the intent. Here I'm not so sure. Why can't we all be friends ?

We could've been friends. But you just bored me to tears....

As for Shearer. Scudetto, Premier League, Champions League, Coppa Italia, European young player of the year. Vs 1 premier league title.

where's the real WtW??? The one who has learned and well thought-out opinions we can all trust and respect???

Slightly off topic but the BBC pundits have really got on my tits. Hansen being the main culprit, can't stand that arrogant smug feck.

Pre match he tips England to win but post match he claims that the tournament had two strong groups and two weak groups, and the results in the quarters proved that. Then why did you think England would win at a cantor?

And Balotelli hasn't won anything?....4 league titles, 2 domestic cups and 1 european cup. 21 years of age. More than Shearer and Linekar combined. The fact that Shearer made that comment shows the lack of research and actual knowledge. Just seen its been already mentioned by boltonboris deserves saying again .