(Or, how much longer can the BBC claim to be unbiased?) Manchester City fans have a reputation of being bitter. As a Manchester City fan, I resent this, considering that I am more cynical than bitter and I have completely lost faith in the BBC as to provide accurate coverage of any sports highlights. Numerous times have I made the complaint that no football match, no matter how exciting, is featured on Match of the Day first, second or third, unless it's against Man Utd, Arsenal or Chelsea. A 4-4 draw between Bolton and Sheffield United (if it happened) would be third on a day when the top 3 had played. There are certain teams that they clearly don't like. Manchester City being one of them - to be honest, I've not particularly noticed the others, not being their fans and all, but I'm sure SOMEONE has. Win, lose or draw, Man City are the penultimate or last match on the BBC's fair and unbiased programme. That is, of course, unless they are playing Man United, Arsenal or Chelsea. Then when it comes to coverage, the corporation excels itself. Not only do they manage to cleverly edit their footage to give a different reflection of games, they seem to make up statistics, too. Take today, for example. It was the Manchester Derby. I watched the whole game and, on reflection, a United win was fair. 2-1 would have been a fair reflection of the game, 3-1 flattered them slightly. According to the Match of the Day studio, City should have been buried. We also saw nothing of City's second half domination - what must have been 10-15 minutes of pressure on United's goal. To crown it all off, we get to see Corradi's dive (which is made an example of), but Rooney's two minutes later is completely edited out. The link shows the number of accumulative Manchester City Match of the Day minutes (blue line) after 17 games. The yellow area denotes 7-10 minutes per week - a fair reflection should have the blue line finish in here at 38 games. Maybe I'll try Sky.
I like BBC's coverage of games. I'm not a big fan of Match of the Day though, mainly because you don't get a feel of how well or poorly your team played. They only show the highlights and this doesn;t necessarily show a true reflection of the game. Football first is good as you get to see more of the game, rather than the flash points, that gloss over the performance. Regarding who the BBC show, I think they simply show the bigger teams as that is what the majority want. It might be harsh on City and others, but the BBC are interested in ratings and showing the top teams means more viewers. I don't begrudge them for this.
