World Cup mania is taking over my TV
I notice that the World Cup is going on. I could hardly miss it, of course, as the BBC and ITV seem to be competing as to who can show the most matches in a single day, and my brother rang me in great excitement to tell me that England were the favourites to win the competition.
My housemates (all female) have expressed varying degrees of ire about the football. I can see where they’re coming from: I tried to buy a computer part off the internet a couple of weeks ago, and when my receipt came up on screen, the item was listed along with a “FREE England car flag!” I tried to get rid of it, but apparently, there was no way of removing it from the order. Frankly, this sudden proliferation of a national flag that has dubious associations is more than a little depressing. But I’ve tried to look on the bright side: there’s something rather comical in the way that the nation’s sports commentators seem to regard Wayne Rooney’s recovery from injury as akin to the second coming of Christ. I thought the point was that the man didn’t make the team. But what do I know?
Anyway, as I say, I was trying to be good-natured about it all. But this evening, the main news item on Channel Four News was that England had beaten Trinidad and Tobago (oh, happy day), and the first fifteen minutes was devoted to this seminal piece of news. And that’s the point at which my tolerance dried up. It’s not even a story, as such, yet Krishnan Guru-Murthy had to try to analyse it, meaning that the drugs story covered by Tom Clarke (the lovely science correspondent; my joint favourite reporter, along with Faisal Islam, the business correspondent) was shunted into second place. It’s just not right. When it was the Ashes, the cricket was only ever mentioned in passing; that’s how sports reporting on the news should be. God help us if England actually do win the Cup. Still, I can’t see it happening. That accursed ‘Believe’ campaign from Mars hasn’t cracked me yet.
