Daily Fail: Americans Covering European Football

Charles Klein

As I am sure you are now well aware of, the UEFA Champions League Final was held yesterday, with Inter Milan defeating Bayern Munich 2-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu in Spain. And you can read all about it here. What I found frustrating yesterday whilst watching the match was not necessarily the pace at which the game was played, but more of how it was covered.

While as an American fan of European football it was brilliant to be able to watch the match on network television in the United States (for the first time in the U.S.) and not on my computer, it was absolutely miserable to watch Curt Menefee attempt to host a pre-game, half-time and post-game show.

Like the guy involved in a conversation in which he understands very little of what is being discussed, he always sought to bring the discussion back to something he understood in a very Uncle Vernon type way. Meanwhile Bruce Arena and Eric Wynalda offered very little in the way of "expert" commentary for those who were not watching the Champions League for the first time.

Back to Menefee for a quick second. When one is determining the ideal qualities of a host, pronouncing the names of the players correctly ranks as one of the essential things he must do well. It is not like Menefee was tasked with hosting a match between two teams with names which were difficult to pronounce. More to the point, if they are difficult, he ought to have prepared better and learned how to say names like Eto'o and Demichelis. And in the opening segment of FOX's coverage he continually raised his hand and gesticulated with his thumb exactly where one might find two teams playing soccer. Perhaps Mr. Menefee ought to take up the profession of guest services.

One of the more irritating things about watching an American crew covering a match is their assumption that everyone watching has never seen or heard of soccer. Menfee & Co. continually referred to the final as the "Super Bowl of Soccer" when in actuality, it is not. There is no Super Bowl in Europe. While the site may change every year like it does for the Super Bowl, that is where the similarities begin and end.

And they kept calling it "the beautiful game" as if by mere repetition they might have been able to convince those non-believers that soccer really is a great spectator sport.

I do not think all Americans are simpletons when it comes to an understanding of soccer. There is a large contingent within the United States who understands most of the in's and out's of the game and knows who most of the great players are. Until FOX/ESPN learns that they ought to cater more to the knowledgeable fan than the clueless one, they will never get it right.

All of this rambling about how poor the coverage of the game was without even talking about a certain Andy Gray. I will leave him and Mr. Tyler for another post.