Better Motty than the moaners

AMID the joy of Spain and, by extention, good football winning at Euro 2008 comes the news that John Motson is to step down from his television commentary role.

Motty, as his relatively recent rebranding would have us call him, has attracted plenty of antipathy over the years.

But while his shoehorning in barely relevant trivia, mispronouncing names and laughing heartily at non-jokes may irk many, his pure, unabashed enthusiasm for the game remained highly infectious.

Better Motty than someone like Radio 5 Live commentator Alan Green, a man so negative he is practically inside out. Awful, just awful.

That said, the boorish Green would fit in snugly with the depressing and self-satisfied tone present in the BBC studios in Austria and Switzerland.

Having a pop at the pundits is easy, of course. But while you get the impression that Motson would walk over broken glass — “interestingly, some yoga practitioners believe glass walking can be beneficial to blood circulation” — in exchange for the privilege of describing the Euros, the feeling is that for Alans Hansen and Shearer, the tournament has been something of an inconvenience in that it isn’t a round of golf.

Honestly, the pair seemed to relish the duller games as proving their point that the whole thing was inevitably going to be a letdown. Only Martin O’Neill’s mad uncle act saved the interludes from being a total washout.

There was also a running theme, which Motson wasn’t immune to alluding to, of Germany being ‘lucky’ to get to the final.

Sorry, but that wasn’t the case.

For starters, they had to overcome the disappointment of finishing second in the group stages to overcome a formidable Portugal outfit in the last eight. Nobody gave them a prayer, yet the Germans deservedly won 3-2 to reach the semis.

Then they came up against a depleted Turkey side in the semis who had absolutely nothing to lose and played like it. Still, Joachim Low’s men showed great resolve to make the most of their chances — unlike Turkey — and once again come out 3-2 winners.

The final was about the limit for a team not without talent, but hardly brimming with it in the way Spain’s was. Not a bad reward, though, and certainly Germany deserve better than consistently being branded a “poor side”. That they ain’t.

Finally, a note to the BBC bosses on the regular FanZone reports. Watching a bloke talking about blokes watching blokes play football on a big screen does not equal good telly.




ANYBODY out there confident of England’s chances against South Africa in the coming Test series? Thought not.

The pathetic debacle of a one-day series loss to New Zealand was further proof of the current lack of direction. The top order batsmen are incapable of composing an innings, nobody appears to have a clue who the best wicketkeeper is any more, and the bowling under pressure is disastrous.

Coach Peter Moores may have presided over a recent Test series victory over the Kiwis. But it was jammier than a Robinson’s factory. Improvements have to be made, quickly, or Moores has to be shipped out.