Football Federation Australia has joined the backlash over the ABC’s “cringey” TV broadcast of Sydney FC’s friendly with English Premier League giants Liverpool, telling the network’s management its pre-game, half-time and post-game coverage was below par.
Twitter lit up on Wednesday night as comedians Jules Schiller, Tegan Higginbotham and Steen Raskopoulos presented their pre-match show on ABC2.
The segment featured skits, including one that involved sending texts to Harry Kewell, and a tacky whiteboard with cutouts of players in formation instead of graphics.
More criticism came at half-time when the trio crossed live to an uncomfortable-looking pitchside reporter who asked a fan to name his favourite “possession”, before snatching back the microphone and exclaiming “I’ve been possessed with the spirit of football”.
Viewers variously described the overall coverage as an “embarrassment”, “cringey” and “just about the worst sports coverage ever”, while one lamented that “footballs were actually crying”.
Some said it was disrespectful to treat a match with a world-class team as a joke.
“All the years of superb W-League TV coverage and everything else the ABC does well disrespected by those three presenters tonight #livsyd,” one tweeted.
Another wrote: “If @FFA thinks ABC is the right fit for free-to-air (A-League) coverage, we might as well give up. They should be tearing up contracts tonight. #LIVSYD.”
On Thursday FFA weighed in with a statement via its official A-League Twitter account.
“Like many fans, FFA is disappointed with some aspects of the ABC’s broadcast of the Sydney FC v Liverpool FC match last night,” the governing body tweeted.
“Pre-game, half-time and post-game coverage wasn’t to standard expected by @FFA and football fans. We’ve made that point to ABC management.”
FFA did not criticise the commentary during the game.
The ABC has been approached for comment.
Labor senator Sam Dastyari, who happened to be at a senate estimates hearing with ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie on Wednesday night, suggested the broadcaster intends to respond.
“Sleep well Australia – the CEO of ABC has committed to formally providing a response as to the #livsyd coverage tonight,” Dastyari tweeted.
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