There is a particular brand of football commentary that does more harm than good. It is the sort that comes from a place of ignorance dressed up as au...
There is a particular brand of football commentary that does more harm than good. It is the sort that comes from a place of ignorance dressed up as authority, where the presenter mistakes snideness for insight and dismissiveness for expertise. And if the summary of this week's most talked about show is to be taken at face value, then Scottish football has once again been subjected to the most petty and ill informed radio analysis imaginable.Let us be blunt about this. To take a broad brush to the Scottish game and paint it as some sort of provincial sideshow is not just lazy. It is an abdication of journalistic responsibility. The Premiership north of the border is a league of ferocious intensity, where a low block is often met with relentless physicality and where transitional play can decide a title race in a single afternoon. To ignore the tactical flexibility shown by managers working with a fraction of the resources available in England is to willfully miss the point.What is so galling about this brand of punditry is its refusal to engage with the actual football. Instead of breaking down a well worked set piece or praising a moment of clinical finishing, we get a sneer. Instead of analysing a clever tactical adjustment, we get a joke about the weather or the crowd size. It is the intellectual equivalent of parking the bus against a much better side you are admitting you cannot compete, so you just try to spoil the game for everyone else.GoalZaza has long argued that the health of British football depends on mutual respect between its constituent nations. When a national broadcaster treats an entire professional league as a punchline, it does not just insult the fans at Celtic Park or Ibrox. It insults the players at Pittodrie, at Tynecastle, and at Fir Park who sweat blood for the privilege of playing this game. Have we really reached a point where we prefer manufactured controversy over genuine analysisThe irony is that the best football broadcasting understands nuance. It understands that a game can be both scrappy and compelling, that a goalkeeper can make a world class save in a 0. 0 draw, and that a league table does not lie about the quality of its champions. Scottish football does not need sycophants. It needs critics who have actually watched the matches. It needs broadcasters who respect the sport enough to do their homework. Until then, maybe the petty and ill informed should stick to what they know best. Which, evidently, is not football.
