News, Sport
A taste of their own medicine? Welsh football coverage 'one-eyed cheerleading' complains Telegraph
Welsh and Scottish fans have long complained about having to put up with the UK media's adulation of all things England, but it seems that the tables have now turned.
Coverage of Wales' game against Turkey amounted to "one-eyed cheerleading" according to the Telegraph newspaper, which condemned the BBC for "inflicting" Robbie Savage onto their screens.
The analysis told us nothing about how Wales had reached the brink of qualifying for the knockout stages "with a team seemingly even less star power than at Euro 2016" they said.
"This analysis was less a considered breakdown of Rob Page’s tactics than an exercise in one-eyed cheerleading that some cyclops would consider excessive," Daniel Schofield, who is billed as the paper's rugby reporter, wrote.
"To be clear this is not Savage’s fault. 'Paschun' and the wearing of heart on his sleeve like cufflinks is as much part of his brand as his suspicious all-year round tan. Instead it is the BBC who must bear responsibility for inflicting Savage upon our ears.
"Putting Savage on co-commentary and expecting dispassionate erudite analysis is like giving a Rottweiler a bunny rabbit and hoping they become friends. This is the deliberate direction of travel, not just from the BBC but from ITV, Sky and BT Sport.
"From celebrating a five-yard pass to disputing every decision that went against his team, Savage did a grand job of embodying the emotions of every Wales supporter watching the game."
However, Daniel Schofield does concede at the end of the article that perhaps England fans are only having to tolerate what Welsh and Scottish fans have put up with for decades.
"There will be no shortage of Welsh, Scottish and Irish readers happy to point out for much of the past 20 years they have had to put up with an overwhelming favouritism being shoved down their throat every time England are involved in a major tournament," he ends.
"Which is true. Who knew that karma would come with blond locks and skinny jeans?"
[mid-content-banner]
Support our Nation today
For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.