British media are ruining our game

The chief executive of England’s World Cup bid Andy Anson has revealed that he was told by a Fifa delegate that England didn’t get the World Cup in 2018 because of our media.

He doesn’t believe that but I can understand where the delegate is coming from.

Press

At a press conference in Zurich Anson revealed: “We have spoken to some executive committee members and they are saying to us that our media killed us.

“Now I don’t believe that, I don’t believe that for one minute, but that is what we are being told.

“I still find what happened hard to understand and hard to believe. We went to bed feeling confident we would get through the first round so to find out we only got two votes is tough”

The fact that England received two votes was a major surprise to most people. There must have been a reason and I can understand the reasoning of our media being our downfall.

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation or BBC as most of the world know it decided to screen a programme called Panorama which looked into corruption within Fifa just before the decisions were made.

That was an inspired move on the part of the corporation. The programme pulled apart the world football governing body and criticised their methods. The timing of the screening of the programme couldn’t have been any worse.

People may claim it’s the job of programmes like Panorama to investigate corruptions and injustices, but the BBC should have waited until after the decision on the bid was made. Instead they screened it just before the decision was made, shooting our bid in the foot.

Press

It’s not just the television that ruins our chances of success it’s also the written press. Every time a big tournament swings around the British press seem to dig up a story on one of the England players or make something out of nothing.

The prime example being just before the World Cup in South Africa the John Terry scandal emerged in the tabloid press. Again the timing was spectacularly awful. John Terry did something wrong but couldn’t the tabloids have kept it under their hats until after the World Cup?

The answer was NO because all they thought about was the amount of columns inches they could fill with lurid details about Terry’s private life. They would say that the public have a right to know certain things.

However did we really all need to know the details of Terry’s private life. Again the answer is NO. I said at the time that I wasn’t interested in his personal life. I was only interested in what he did on the pitch.

Unfortunately all the speculation and rumours really affected his game and his form has never recovered. Terry may have been in the wrong but it was the newspapers who told everybody about it.

The recent Wayne Rooney scandal was the same. The media hounded him and hounded him. His form was also affected and he has endured a miserable time ever since. Rooney has made mistakes but he’s only human and every human being makes mistakes.

Scandal

Unfortunately scandal sells and the British media are the best in the world at digging it up. It’s almost like the British media are deliberately trying to sabotage English football. It’s sad when your own media is trying to ruin your national sport, but I’m afraid they believe that profit is more important than the beautiful game.

Blame

The media isn’t the only factor which derailed our bid. The likes of political voting and other factors will have had an effect on the decision.

I’m no expert on how Fifa works but it’s obvious that the best prepared country doesn’t always win the bid, as the decision to give Qatar the competition in 2022 proved, when it was obvious that the USA had a far better bid. Anything can tip a vote and our overactive media might just have tipped the decision against us.

Disclaimer

Although I am a very small part of the British media I in no way condone the actions of my more frivolous colleagues, Thank you!