Boston Goals
From this piece by Owen Gibson from The Guardian:
“The idea may not be universally popular, not least at Old Trafford, but US sports giant ESPN has vowed to use its FA Cup deal to persuade clubs to follow the American model and revolutionise the access they give broadcasters.
In the US, where ESPN built its reputation, there is a culture of coaches and players allowing cameras into dressing rooms, being interviewed live during games and even briefing broadcasters on their tactics ahead of a match so they can choose the best camera angles.
The FA recently set up a working group to debate radical changes to the FA Cup in the hope of improving its appeal for clubs and fans. Suggestions include moving matches from weekends to evenings and scrapping replays.
ESPN, which will meet the FA next week ahead of its £60m contract beginning next season, said it would be an enthusiastic contributor to those discussions. But it will also use the FA Cup as a testing ground for its own ideas to get closer to the action, including speaking to managers during matches and gaining more access to dressing rooms and training grounds.”
Whilst most English fans will cringe at the idea of American-style footage of football and immediately think of Soccer AM’s Boston Goals clips and talk of ‘blasting the soccersphere into the goalbasket’, the reality of American sports coverage is actually pretty different – and let’s face it, coverage over here is already appalling.
As a recent convert to NFL, I’ve been incredibly impressed with the coverage that they provide – much of which is made available by the sorts of freedoms that ESPN are asking for. Each week, a star player in the pre-determined ‘game of the week’ wears a microphone, god knows how many weird and wonderful cameras are placed around the stadium and in the skies and a full historical piece on the game is produced – complete with narration and a full account of all the drama of the occassion. Here is the film created of the 2009 Superbowl, and you can still see pieces created in the 1970s giving the league an incredibly rich archive history.
You also get brilliant individual moments recorded, almost by chance. Here is a clip of Peyton Manning, who happened to be mic’ed up for this particular game, flying off the handle at Jeff Saturday. Note that the clip is also taken from a full documentary on their 2007 Superbowl victory – can you imagine how interesting such a detailed documentary being created about Jose Mourinho’s first title win, for example, with full footage and dressing room drama and opinions would be, even now just a few years after the event? Even without the documentary, can you imagine having Craig Bellemy mic’ed up during a rant at team mates or a referee!? Not that I imagine he’d be the first to volunteer.
When Bellemy made post-match comments about John Terry after the handshake affair, it was talked about up and down the country and hailed as a rare moment of honesty and insight. How often has this frankly brilliant Neil Warnock footage been used since it was recorded in 1995? Or Harry Redknapp being hit by a ball in training or Vieira and Keane arguing in the tunnel.
The fact is that there is great thirst for this kind of footage, the insight into what players and managers are thinking, how they motivate themselves, how the minutiae of everyday life at a football club translates onto the pitch. The problem that we have with TV companies being allowed this kind of access is that our own broadcasters tend to do everything so badly (hello ITV). Hopefully if ESPN use their US experience (and I suppose that still is a big ‘if’ – their current football coverage isn’t exactly breaking away from other UK broadcasters) and the initial shock of seeing this kind of footage is overcome, then football coverage in this country could hopefully be massively enhanced.
