ABC Covering Sport, Never Again Please.

Every so often Australia host teams from major sporting leagues to save us a trip overseas. Our guests tonight were the football team from the Premier League, Liverpool FC. They were set to take on Sydney FC, Australia’s current A-League champions in what would expectedly be a bit of a laugh. Liverpool FC reminded Australia that even our best team is a hardly competition to those overseas. The joke however wasn’t actually the battle that would take place, but the coverage that Australians pay for.

The FIFA World Cup is normally shown on SBS, football greats host it and provide expert commentary. The A-League is shown on Fox Sports and receives similar treatment. The preshow, the half-time show and after game coverage is insightful and eases the pain of not being there in person. It was certainly odd then, that the ABC hosted this match, on ABC2, and with a crew of four people who might have heard of the word “football” minutes before going to air.

I don’t recall who they were and I hope we don’t see them again. Some amazing moments include a cross to a man who wanted to make a mockery of the sport, asking dumb questions to people in the crowd and then removing his football jersey to reveal an NFL t-shirt. Why? Who knows! Was the goal of the ABC to ensure that they don’t use their precious second channel for sport which likely received more viewers than anything ever broadcast before? Or did the ABC just bring four latte sippers who would rather talk about the power of veganism and how to up-cycle clothes than cover this game with any dignity?

The stadium was packed tonight (72,000), it was a clear display that Australia loves their football, they were willing to spend big money on their seats and Australians at home were equally keen to watch the game take place. It is an absolute shame that the ABC couldn’t take this seriously, bring in ANYONE who knew a dime about the sport, or who cared enough about the sport and give us decent coverage.

It isn’t just me who is upset about this, but a quick search on Twitter revealed the same sentiment. I’m not an ABC viewer generally, I hear the complaints in the media that they should be defunded and I rarely care. Tonight I do, and I hope the next chance this comes up, they just say no, focus on whatever they’re good at – I just don’t know what that is.