Why things will only get worse for football fans

As the BBC comes under increased scrutiny from the government about spending and quality, we football fans are going to lose more and more quality in terms of football broadcasting.

Sadly the BBC lost the rights to broadcast live England matches a while back and since then we have had to put up with ITV's diabolicle attempts. Instead of Gary Lineker's incredibly friendly and warm presenting style and Alan Hansen's harsh but rigourous punditry, we now have to put up with an increasingly awkward Adrian Chiles and, probably the single worst thing about football in England, Andy Townsend.

Since Chiles moved from the bridesmaid position on Match of the Day 2, he has struggeled to fit into ITV's line up. The relationship he shared with Lee Dixon has not yet been formed with his new colleagues and his jokey, "I'm just a fan like you" style really isn't working. As for Andy Townsend, I could write a dissertation on why he should be queuing up for his dole check. My main criticism would be that he offers very little insight for the seasoned football fan. Instead of breaking down defensive mistakes with the detail of Hansen or Gray, he instead offers a running commentary of almost exactly what we are seeing on the screen.

Townsend is not the only man who should have re-thought their career path. The list of ITV pundits reads like a who's who of broadcasting rejects; Jim Beglin, Kevin Gallacher, Matt Holland and Iain Dowie. Sadly for fans of good punditry, by far and away their best pundit, David Pleat, was dropped in 2009.

The BBC and Sky have really got their acts together. I think this is particuarly impressive in the BBC's case as they are publically funded and so have limited funding to produce a service of quality. Lineker and Hansen make a great duo, one rather smiley and likable, the other a miserable realist who tells it like it is. Lee Dixon has certainly come into his own and could become the authority on defensive analysis.

Mark Lawrenson also has a large fanbase, I'm not his biggest fan but his face has become so familiar and it has to said that his predictions slot on Football Focus is rather entertaining. My oppinion of Alan Shearer improved hugely after the World Cup especially after England's loss to Germany when everybody in the BBC studio just wanted to utter obscenities for five minutes solid. Shearer was clearly distressed and told the audience exactly how he felt, which was appreciated when sports broadcaster quite often tip toe around the elephants in the room.

I'm sure many will agree though, that the crown of punditry fits firmly on the head of one man. For me Andy Gray will not be beaten. Not only is it impossible to question his passion for the game but he also has an unrivalled level of knowledge and let us not forget the peculiar computer pen he uses to scribble on the screen during the post match chat.

ITV's incompetence doesn't just lie in their inability to anylise. They have on a number of occasions failed to even broadcast goals cutting to adverts instead. During Liverpool and Everton's FA Cup replay last year, they cut to an advert and came back to the action only to see Dan Gosling celebrating his goal. A similar event happened at this year's World Cup where ITV failed to show its ITV HD viewers Gerrard's early goal against the USA. These events are far worse than ignorance and show exactly why ITV cannot be trusted to braodcast anything of any significance whatsoever.

It saddens me somewhat that ITV's football output is only likely to increase over the next few years. Perhaps they will improve with it but most likely they believe that their coverage is actually pretty decent instead of the reality so obviously being that they spent all their money on buying the rights that they cannot afford to employ anyone decent for it.

Sport is a curious part of the capitalist consumer democracy. It is hugely monopolised (mainly by Sky) and viewers aren't given a choice. On the highstreet, if someone receives poor service in a shop, they can choose to buy the same product elsewhere in the future. On television, if someone does not enjoy the sport coverage they happen to be watching they have to stick with it. The only time where this is not the case was during the World Cup final when both the BBC and ITV broadcast the same pictures. ITV drew 3.5 million viewers whilst the BBC drew in 17 million. This only leaves one question to be asked, why on earth are 3.5 million people watching ITV?