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MOTD Highlights are a joke 23:55 - Sep 15 with 17236 views

I can no longer stomach watching MOTD.

For so many years playing non Prem League, we have had nothing to compare against but now we are at the games, the MOTD highlights stand out as being so poor!

They are also so biased towards the big teams its embarrassing

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 13:19 - Sep 16 with 2077 views

Antti_Heinola

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 10:44 - Sep 16 by jonno
My question to Rob would be how the BBC justify Hanson's £40k per programme fee when there are clearly people about who could do the same thing far better and for a lot less money.

How on earth can you expect Rob to answer that? He just works on the same damn show! Jesus, Jonno, you're an informed, intelligent man. Be reasonable for God's sake!

Leaving that aside, knowing quite a lot of people in BBC Sport I can say that they all work incredibly hard to make that show every week in an extremely limited amount of time. BUT I fervently agree with the general opinion that MOTD needs an enormous shake-up. Lineker looked like he'd just been let out of a dark hole during the Olympics because the coverage was fresh, positive and interesting - and by all accounts he absolutely loved working on it and spent loads of time in the office just watching stuff when he wasn't even supposed to be working. He looks deflated on the football. The Beeb has got itself into a hole where the same, poor, jaded pundits are dragging the coverage down badly. One of the few good ones, Lee Dixon, was allowed to go to ITV - partly because he could see he'd always be a back-up to the linkes of Hansen, Shearer and Lawro I suspect, and that wasn't fair on him as he was better than all of them - but no one would ever take the brave decision to start using those three more sparingly.

In my view the BBC should totally ditch the Prem, FA Cup and internationals (apart from major tournaments) once those contracts run out. It costs too much and isn't worth it and I think the appetite for football in this country is now past its peak. The BBC should now be buying up rights to smaller sports and building on the appetite the public showed for them during the Olympics - in particular, cycling, hockey, gymnastics, swimming - even handball and volleyball - and reinstate Grandstand to show them every Saturday.

Bare bones.

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 14:06 - Sep 16 with 2052 views

kensalriser

Good post Antti.

Fair play to Rob for putting his head above the parapet to correct a misapprehension and give us some insight, but the guy is really on a hiding to nothing because for every intelligent post there are half a dozen more that are just the venting of the typical football fan's simmering bile, complete lack of rationality and victim mentality.

FWIW I don't especially like MOTD, but it's just a highlights programme with a bit of commentary by a few household names (it's very much a trend in broadcasting that presenters and pundits are picked for recognition factor over expertise). I don't expect it to feature in-depth expert analysis and I do expect it to feature the bigger/more successful clubs over the smaller/less successful.

Perhaps there's room for a show aimed more at the geeky/tactically minded fan with intelligent pundits who actually know the subject and can express themselves, while MOTD gets rid of the punditry and just concentrates on the action.

[Post edited 1 Jan 1970 1:00]

Poll:

QPR to finish 7th or Brentford to drop out of the top 6?

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 14:12 - Sep 16 with 2051 views

N12Hoop

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 13:04 - Sep 16 by Monahoop

The trouble with football programmes today and not just MOTD, but on all channels, is that the viewer has to endure ' professional analysis' from former players. Many are hopeless and only offer their own contrite opinions or try to stir up some kind of an argument which quite frankly most football fans couldn't give two hoots about. Yes they do take up a lot of time and I agree more time should be spared to showing more highlights or extending them.

Going back in time and for those on here who can remember, I think we can thank dear old Jimmy 'the Chin' Hill for all this analytical clap trap. He first and foremost introduced this concept of adding bullsh*t analysis on games and the way it should be played. MOTD pre Hill just showed two games with about 20 minute highlights dedicated to both games. Now that in itself had its flaws especially if one of those games, say Birmingham v Coventry slogged out a tedious 0-0 draw and was played out on a Somme style pitch. It didn't warrant great watching and left the viewer cursing as to why that particular game was shown. But at least at the end of it all we didn't have to listen to long winded opinions, facts and statistics.

MOTD is stale and lazy, but I would prefer it to Irelands equivalent, Premier Soccer Saturday where the presenters are 900 years old and only about 2 minutes of highlights are shown [ 10 minutes if its Man Utd or Liverpool ] of each game and the rest of the programme is made up of total waste of time opinions and waffle.

Show the games.Cut out the often mind numbing chat and analysis.

I'm with you. So much time is wasted analysing a defender being out of position or something and, unless it's your team, so fcking what. Most people just want to see highlights of the games and the only analysis we want to see is of red card and penalty incidents etc.
The way they home in on stuff they could probably make the best player look crap if it suits their needs, eg, Kyle walker could be shown to be a bit shaky at the back and out of position but if he creates and scores more than he is responsible for conceding then fans overlook the deficiencies. But if all they show is he defensive stuff there will be loads of people out there wondeing why he is so highly rated.
However, at the end of the day MOTD is like the rest of the media, they show you what they want and it is subjective. The fact it often bears no resemblance to reality is irrelevant in their eyes.

Poll:

Who would you most like to see win the Premiership?

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 14:20 - Sep 16 with 2038 views

nadera78

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 13:19 - Sep 16 by Antti_Heinola

I'd very much go along with your last paragraph, but there is a problem here for the BBC. If they spend a lot of money on the PL, FA Cup etc, they get criticised for spending that money on sports that are covered elsewhere, and told they should focus on smaller sports as per their remit.

But if they ignore those and go for smaller sports (like Rugby League, athletics, etc) then they get a smaller share of the TV audience and people with a vested interest in doing the BBC down (like the Daily Mail) use it to argue they are out of touch with the British people and should lose their licence fee.

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 14:33 - Sep 16 with 2027 views

real_loftus

Is MOTD shite? Yep, pretty much.

Is Sky better? Yep

Would ITV/C4/C%/ESPN be any better than MOTD? Probably not

Look, it has a limited time slot, and yesterday there were 8 games to cram in. Our game meant the most to us, but for the neutral, it was all about the handshake and how did the "Champions of Europe" perform.

So unless we stuff Citeh 8-0 at Loftus Road, watching MOTD and expecting a positive/lengthy QPR report is like watching Eastenders and expecting Shakespeare. It aint gonna happen.

MOTD, TalkShite, etc- as someone said, all designed for people who dont go to football but think they know what they're talking about. Just listen to all the calls into TalkShite tomorrow morning from "Dave, a United fan from Canterbury" or "Steve, a Chelsea fan from the Isle of Wight".

ATAF

ATAF.

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 15:37 - Sep 16 with 1977 views

onlyrinmoray

"Why is Gary Linekar so smug " God have you seen his wife no wonder he looks like he got the cream lucky bugger

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 16:24 - Sep 16 with 1953 views

VUVU

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 15:37 - Sep 16 by onlyrinmoray
"Why is Gary Linekar so smug " God have you seen his wife no wonder he looks like he got the cream lucky bugger

Reading 'The Secret Footballer' he talks about his frustrations with MOTD highlights and how it is all crap... mentions they are clueless about the highlights and just following a script!

Bond: "Not until I see Kananga!" Kananga: "Rightttt... (Starts pulling face off)"

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 17:10 - Sep 16 with 1928 views

Juzzie

MoTD is like a tabloid newspaper... it's just about reporting the sensationalism of the game. Two penalty shouts are better than 2 possible red cards.

However, if you're going to mention one though, you MUST mention the other. They didn't.

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 17:19 - Sep 16 with 1918 views

pastieR

haven't watched it regularly for years....
will always find an alternative.
Joke of programme- such a lazy format with no originality or attempt to keep up with the times.
Seems to be settling to only target an audience that cant see any the highlights any other way.
The 'pundits' seem to have turned up 5 minutes before they are needed from a game of golf. Bringing no real insight only tired cliches.

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 17:26 - Sep 16 with 1909 views

Bedford_R

The highlight show on Sky is much better. But what is even better is the extended highlights that Sky show on Saturdays nights/Sunday mornings - each match gets over an hour. Much as it pains me to give money to that fascist Murdoch that's the only way to get quality highlights of each of our games.

RMH_R Reborn

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 18:00 - Sep 16 with 1893 views

RangersAreBack

I have no issues with bias, I just believe MOTD is a poor format these days. Linekar et al are too obsessed with conveying themselves as the fountains of football knowledge and wisdom. In reality their analysis is often lazy and inaccurate, relying on obvious examples of poor defending, penalty shouts and dismissals. There is little insight into the more subtle reasons why a game was won or the flow of the game altered such as tactical or formation changes.

I appreciate that it must be difficult to analyse every game and sum them up in just over an hour but MOTD can do better. It should start by placing more emphasis on the football than the pundits. Perhaps it ought to switch back to the old format where the focus is on 3 matches with tactical analysis of those plus short highlights of the other matches without the ramblings of Messrs Hansen and Shearer.

[Post edited 1 Jan 1970 1:00]

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 18:46 - Sep 16 with 1865 views

kingo

I would much prefer MOTD to go back to its original format (from where it got it's name) there was a featured match which was chosen before hand (one from three I think) and then just the goals from other matches. By having a featured match, you could see a lot more than just the 'sensational' highlights that someone thinks are of interst to everyone. And by just showing the goals then again there is no bias.

RIP: Sniffer, Doug and Pat

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 19:17 - Sep 16 with 1845 views

Pablo_Hoopsta

It is pretty shÃ®te to be fair, I can't remember the last time I watched it through. I sky+ it now and skip the talking to the highlights, then skip on. As I'm a QPR fan, and therefore into a bit of self flagellation, I always think 'maybe this time....' and I listen to what they have to say about our game and always, ALWAYS, I feel I have lost vital minutes of my life to their chat and say I won't bother next time. But next week I will try again and most likely find myself falling a further notch into a dizzying self pitty that they dont take us more seriously. We'll see.

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 19:33 - Sep 16 with 1835 views

TGRRRSSS

I hardly ever watch it, Hansen and Lawro are a bit past it now and the likes of Lee Dixon are better and fresher and younger.
In other ways MOTD is yes a tired format but also it's old news as chances are the majority of people who would watch MOTD probably have Sky Sports and can if they want what Goals at 7pm.
Is anyone really interested in watching 15 mins of Man Yoo V Wigan knowing the result already and having had the chance to see the goals hours earlier MOTD does feel a bit redundant.
Kudos they brought in FL show, shame about the likes of Claridge but it was great you knew if you weren't at game you'd have a way of seeing all the goals in Promo year for instance.
Lineker isn't bad presenter he's just bored (like everyone else it seems) of MOTD and it's outdated format

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 19:49 - Sep 16 with 1817 views

westberksr

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 17:26 - Sep 16 by Bedford_R
The highlight show on Sky is much better. But what is even better is the extended highlights that Sky show on Saturdays nights/Sunday mornings - each match gets over an hour. Much as it pains me to give money to that fascist Murdoch that's the only way to get quality highlights of each of our games.

watched this earlier and the coverage of the game was excellent and the commentary was very fair to both sides showing all the key moments. Bollox to MOTD; it's the footballing equivalent of TOTP and should have gone the same way years ago.

Sky do let themselves down by having some bint with Harry Bassett doing the end of programme summary; he is double shite with a topping of crapola. talked a load of bollox about our game; defo suspicion of scum connections?

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 20:53 - Sep 16 with 1785 views

robfacey

Hi all.

Few extra things to throw in:

BBC only have rights to show X amount of match action in highlights packages. Would imagine it is slightly more with Sky bearing in mind the live football/sport package brings in the majority of the cash. This is why they can have show after show after show after show of football. Because the Beeb is publiclly funded and for some reason not everyone likes sport, we can't. So straight away we are constrained by time.

Obviously the vast majority of the Beeb find this just as infuriating as you.

This has a knock on affect for each MOTD.

As much as you all seem to be keen on the fact we all play to an agenda or a pre-determined script, as I've said before, we are all football fans who appreciate a lovely move/nice skill/good passing just as much as the next guy. The idea that we would purposefully miss out certain things to fit an agenda/make some teams look good/make some teams look bad simply makes no sense. The only reason why I piped up on here was to try and quell the myths that everyone has it in for us.

However, and please try and bear with me on this, I'll just give you a very general example of how the average Saturday goes which will hopefully explain why some things go in and some don't.

We'll get a rough guideline of a duration for the edit based on where - on paper - the match would end up in the show. It is worth pointing out now that I don't think the running order has EVER stayed the same as when it was drawn up before a ball was kicked. For instance, Man City v Man United as 1 and Wigan v WBA last on paper, but if the latter ends up 3-3 it would obviously shoot up. Either way, we obviously change this as the day progresses. And we do, so don't say we don't!

But, for argument's sake, let's say I am cutting QPR v Stoke and it is currently down as match 4 out of 10 and I have a duration of 9 minutes. This is to include everything - from teams out to post match comments.

As is always the case, 50% of the games are covered by Sky cameras and 50% BBC match directors. We check in with the directors etc and we get on with it.

To vary the show we have a variety of match intros - and these range from about 30" to 1'00" in length.

So let's say I have a full I-XI graphic and it takes about 1'00". (As a rule the post match comments take 1'00"-1'30").

So consider that before the ball has kicked off I know that my 9 minutes is actually 7 and a half. Ideally the halves would be even so you're looking at 3 and a half-ish a half.

Now, a very rough match edit, including all of the flowing moves/half chances/dodgy tackles etc would obviously clock in at about 25 minutes. And 25 into 7 and a half doesn't go.

The point I'm trying to make is that obviously in an ideal world where - like Sky - our edits can be long and luxurious this would all go in.

So say the game is 2-1. Each goal with build up and replays takes up the best part of a minute, if you are lucky. However, as is often the case the goal comes from a set play. So you have to show the build up to the set play. These can often be terribly messy. Now, this may seem like small fry but it all adds up. So suddenly we're down to about 2 and a half for the rest of the game.

Then the MOTD programme editor pops in and says that, for example, Spurs have thrown away a 2 goal lead at home to Arsenal and that he needs an extra 30 seconds from my edit for that game because it has shot up the running order.

So suddenly we are down to about 2 minutes for the rest of the game.

I'm sure you can appreciate that in this situation; a shot that hits the bar/stonewall penalty turned down/whatever, takes priority over a lovely move that breaks down after a great (and lengthy) spell of possession, to use an example.

It's not to say that we all sit there half asleep and only wake up when the ball is in the final third, it is just the fact that some things simply do not fit into the highlights show. Because it is a highlights show, not a re-run.

MOTD is often sandwiched between the news and something else - the football league show, or whatever - and the duration of MOTD is set. We cannot run over.

Now, yesterday we had 8 games. If every edit came in at just 10/15/20" over the final duration we settle on the whole show would be a few minutes over. Which we cannot do and wouldn't get the gig again.

So while losing 20/30" might seem like nothing, it really does all add up.

Anyway, that's all. I speak with a few of you on Twitter or whatever occasionally so hopefully you don't all think I am a secret Chelsea fan. I'm just pointing out that we - as the people directly responsible for what you see on TV - would change a whole load of things with the show, but for a variety of reasons, whether it is the pundits/lack of resources/budget cuts/time/red tape, we can't. And it is really frustrating for us too.

So yes, I will take whatever criticism you may have, but at least bear this in mind.

Cheers!

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 21:09 - Sep 16 with 1768 views

westberksr

Rob

appreciate your coming on and explaining how it is. Just find that in the current days of sky's extensive coverage that the Beeb offering is so inferior that apart from those that have no choice, the format offers few positives. The choice of pro's currently filling the sofas also disappoints as newer faces have been seen elsewhere doing a better job.

just one of those thing I suppose.

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 21:20 - Sep 16 with 1749 views

Pablo_Hoopsta

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 20:53 - Sep 16 by robfacey

Full credit to you Sir.

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 22:10 - Sep 16 with 1715 views

LythamR

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 21:20 - Sep 16 by Pablo_Hoopsta
Full credit to you Sir.

Rob
Thanks for taking the trouble to lay that all out for us, I certainly appreciated it and it has made me rethink a little bit

I travel to and from games and listen to post match comments on radio while travelling so my real interest in match of the day is a convenient way of seeing the goals but I know others that avoid listening to the results or even watching the news so they can watch match of the day fresh and I know a big frustration is way games are shown, it was obvious to my father who had avoided all news of the game that the QPR game was a draw and probably a 0-0 at that, why does the bbc think we have to be fed the games with most goals first, do they feel that supporters are only committed to watching the first half hour or so

Given the extremely limited time allowed for highlights should so much of the programme be taken up with jocular japery between lineker and the pundits and do we really need so much analysis, some of it is enlightening but much is obvious and could surely be clipped. and given the limited time available do we really need to be told whats coming up and do we need the in programme adverts for the football league show and other sporting events

Or is it perhaps the case that the contract restricts the amount of footage to such a degree that they need to put in all the punditry and analysis just to make the programme up to its allotted time, if thats the case my suggestion as a licence payer is scrap the pundits on their vastly overpaid contracts and put that money towards buying a few more minutes of footage each week.

Once again thanks for explaining things and sticking your head over the parapet on this

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 22:35 - Sep 16 with 1697 views

WeaverQPR

football first is the daddy 60min of higlights of your team

@WeavQPR

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 22:57 - Sep 16 with 1681 views

daveB

really intersting stuff, have to say i am a big goals on sunday fan but this season our coverage on that show has been pretty poor, motd showed more of the Man City and norwich game than goals on sunday did. You can never please everyone with motd but it does the job pretty well

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 23:07 - Sep 16 with 1673 views

hamptonhillhoop

Brilliant highlights on motd2. The hazard chance, plus the two penalty shouts, then the final whistle. A very fair reflection!

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 23:15 - Sep 16 with 1663 views

Juzzie

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 23:07 - Sep 16 by hamptonhillhoop
Brilliant highlights on motd2. The hazard chance, plus the two penalty shouts, then the final whistle. A very fair reflection!

Yup, no footage of Mackie's, Park's, Zamora' chances or Zamora's near the end, no mention that Cech got entangled with Zamora as he was trying to go around him but he didn't go down like a sack of spuds. Kept on his feet.

Then they spent a couple of minutes talking about the handshake afterwards and bemoaning it was in all the papers. Well, if you don't want to bring attention to it, stop bloody well talking about it then. As I said earlier... it's tabloid TV, all about the sensationalism.

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 09:36 - Sep 17 with 1594 views

SomersetHoops

Lets face it MOTD is for people who aren't necessarily football fans and just want to see goals. The majority aren't interested in statistics or formations or quality of football - they just want to see goals and any controversy that is going. When we play a 0 - 0 draw we can't expect much coverage, but if we had beaten Chelsea 6 -0 or they had beaten us 3 - 4 I expect we would have been one of the first on with much more time allocated to the performance.

Many years ago when MOTD showed games accross all the Divisions there weas much better coverage of the actual football, but now its just goals and controversy. Even then we wouldn't have got much if any coverage for a 0 - 0 draw. It is time the BBC put on proper football coverage again for fans of the game, but I think they have gone too far into lowest common denominator coverage to expect that from them - hopefully a commercial station will soon show them proper coverage and how it should be done

Who's Next?

MOTD Highlights are a joke on 10:01 - Sep 17 with 1396 views

smegma

All fans of PL teams (with the exception of Utd/Citeh/Chelsea/Arsenal/Spurs) probably say the same thing every week about MOTD. I couldn't give a flying one as to what pundits say , I was there and I know what happened. But the editor of the show surely should've shown the Bertrand assault that two papers I've read said it should've been a red card. Had JT committed it it would've been shown, the pundits would've spent 10 minutes discussing it and there would be 20 threads on here about it.Had Barton done it he would be banned for life.So please don't tell me that MOTD is a true reflection of what we saw on Saturday. Who remembers Citeh away the other week and a certain Kolarov going around rugby tackling players while already on a yellow ? Did MOTD show it ?? Did they bowlocks.

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