Sporting Braga v Celtic: Time for some public service from the BBC

Beachgrove Garden? No Thanks

As Celtic prepare to kick off the new season away to Sporting Braga on Wednesday there is still no news of live television coverage of the match.

Surely this is the chance for the BBC to step in and provide some public service after the extravagance of the World Cup.

The army of pundits, hangers-on and bus drivers that provided World Cup overkill on screen, radio, on-line and on John Motson’s red button should all have recovered from their licence-fee funded jolly and be ready to provide a service for viewers in Scotland again.

Sky, ESPN and ITV all have major commitments to the regular football season leaving the BBC on the sidelines picking up whatever football that they can find/fund.

No deal has yet been brokered for the away match in Braga with the Portuguese club hardly likely to be holding a gun to the head of the been and demanding silly money.

The BBC have become very shy over the costs of their World Cup operation but a quick look at their television panel compared to the homespun effort from ITV gives a good indication as to the level of expenditure.

A workforce of 295 covered the event in South Africa which was down on the 437 that travelled to Beijing for the 2008 Olympics.

Amongst the many luxuries that the BBC put into their World Cup coverage was the construction of their spectacular hosting studio whilst others made do with the purpose built International Broadcasters Centre.

“We live and breathe value for money,” claimed Barbara Slater, head of BBC Sport . “We have spent months going through these plans trying to get them to a minimum that we think can deliver the ambition of the programming that is going to be in people’s living rooms on BBC1 night after night.”

Lets hope that the same determination will be put in to provide Celtic supporters with action from Braga rather than funding double decker buses driving about black townships for patronising sound bites on the honour of having England in the same country.

ITV had a staff of 150 on duty, 149 once Robbie Earle left, while the entire Scottish newspaper industry, living in the real world, sent three reporters to cover the tournament.

No doubt there will be some negotiations going on but if Celtic fans are left scrambling about trying to find some elusive pictures of their team in action while The Beachgrove Garden and Celebrity MasterChef fill the screens some serious questions should be asked about what we get for our license fee.

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