THE Kicker has long defended the BBC against accusations that it is biased against Celtic, or Rangers, or any particular club in Scotland. That’s because Auntie Beeb is biased against the whole of Scottish football.
Some facts: Scottish licence-payers fund around 8 to 9 per cent of the total take for the BBC. For that we get dreadful television coverage and no live league games except on BBC Alba, and a highlights programme that goes out at the ungodly hour of 6pm on a Sunday because BT Sport and SKY Sports insisted on it – yes, I know the BBC also do the Scottish Cup, but for how long?
The BBC is paying £2.8 million a year to the SPFL for that highlights-only package. By contrast the current highlights package that makes up Match of the Day costs the BBC some £68m a year, or 24 times greater than the amount they pay for league highlights in Scotland.
Put it this way, thanks to the furore over BBC salaries, we know that the BBC pays just three people – Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Sue Barker together – slightly less than they pay the SPFL each year.
The Corporation just doesn’t put enough into the game in Scotland as a whole, Radio Scotland excepted, as it has the best comedy programme on the wireless – no, not Off The Ball, but Open All Mics which is often unintentionally hilarious as the various pundits shout each other down.
There is, however, a case to be made that the BBC is institutionally biased against Scotland and matters Scottish such as the possibility of another independence referendum, just as many thought the BBC was biased during the first one in September, 2014.
Here’s one telling piece of evidence. After the final qualification matches for the World Cup 2018 were decided, the BBC website updated its running UK-wide story on those players that ‘British’ fans might know because they play for teams…in England and Wales.
The BBC gave us the lowdown on all the players from Chelsea, Arsenal, the Manchester clubs and the rest, including Swansea and Cardiff, who are currently in the national squads of the 32 countries competing in Russia.
All such players from the Premiership and even the Championship were named. Not one who played in Scotland was named.
In vain did I look for the names of Bruno Alves of Rangers (Portugal), Kari Arnason of Aberdeen (Iceland), and the several Celtic players such as Dedryck Boyata (Belgium), Tom Rogic (Australia), Cristian Gamboa (Costa Rica) and Mikael Lustig (Sweden) who will all be going to Russia next year.
A few days later, presumably after some Scot pointed it out, somebody added those names to the list from England Wales.
Now you might say ‘well done, Beeb’ for finally getting it right. The Kicker just wonders why it was not done properly by the English Broadcasting Corporation in the first place.
So, BBC, prove me wrong and pay a serious amount of money for Scottish league coverage in future. We deserve it because we pay for it.
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Callum Baird, Editor of The National
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