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ABC2 football pre-show comes under fire

Social media lets rip after ABC2 pre-show coverage of Liverpool v Sydney FC match.

ABC2’s pre-match coverage of a Liverpool v Sydney FC has come under fire on social media.

News Corp reports Twitter lit up with barbs directed at ABC2 and presenters Jules Schiller, Tegan Higginbotham and Steen Raskopoulos for their pre-show coverage.

“Schiller, Higginbotham and Raskopoulos presented an energetic preview of the match ahead, mispronouncing Liverpool striker Milan Baros’ name as “Milos Baros” and pulling together a skit where they all texted former Socceroo Harry Kewell asking him a variety of questions,” the article noted.

Former Socceroo and FOX Sports commentator Robbie Slater also weighed in: “Who thought this was a good idea FFA! This is unforgivable and I and every supporter of our game would like an answer! This is what happens when people who have none or little knowledge of football make decisions! Embarrassing. I love our game and to have it bagged and disrespected by this coverage is unacceptable. How can we work so hard for 12 years and allow this to happen in front of a world audience!”

Some TV Tonight readers were also unimpressed, especially after Tegan Higginbotham was announced yesterday as part of a newly-announced sports panel, Fever Pitch.

If last nights pre/post/half time effort of Liverpool vs Sydney is an indication of where ABC are going with this then it’ll be getting a wide berth…… -Glenn C

On the strength of the pre-game, I suspect Fever Pitch will be shown the red card by viewers – Dr. Rudi

The Syd v Liv pre-game was so woeful that I didn’t just mute it, I turned it off. Suspect that they’re trying to piggy-back on the successful launch of the Women’s AFL but I very much doubt that it’ll get anywhere near the numbers that Grand Design is currently pulling. -Secret Squirrel

After a barrage of negative tweets, Schiller replied: “Learnt that to be centre of a Twitter hate storm it’s a worse crime to do badly reviewed sports coverage than propose blowing up ABC staff. Comments noted Twitter. I’ll always love football and its passion. (Pity I couldn’t write this on a whiteboard). Love Jules x.”

10 Responses

  1. Hosts aside, I don’t understand why the ABC has such consistently poor production values. Yes, I know it’s a government bureaucracy but surely they could hire a set designer and some graphic artists.

    1. Maybe because they’ve got to run national coverage TV & radio networks, as well as on demand & web services, on about the same annual revenue as it takes Nine Entertainment to run just 8 TV stations?

  2. The ABC soccer coverage is terrible because the pre-game analysis between Tegan, Jules and Steen was a humiliation. Not just that but the game was delayed in Perth by 2 hours.

    1. You can always watch the game live on ABC’s live stream, and if you have a chrome cast you can even watch it on your TV. I do that for the half year when Queensland suffers a one hour delay on broadcast.

  3. Judging from this article it is a big overreaction about ABC’s coverage of this match. The Liverpool team had just finished its EPL season and didn’t have all there big stars anyway, so the match wasn’t a big deal hens not on commercial FTA. As for Robbie Slater’s negative comments well i think he is just annoyed that FOX didn’t get to telecast the game, although i am sure they had a chance to but most likely declined since the aforementioned stars were not available. This just goes to show that some people are worried about the wrong things instead of the real problems. Perspective is really lacking atm.

  4. Perfect coverage for a match that Liverpool treated with contempt, 3 players only from their best side playing and two retired crocks also playing, even Graham Arnold didn’t wear his normal suit but tracksuit,shows how much he cared. .joke game so we got Comediana hosting

  5. Woeful the coverage may have been, but Robbie Slater is misguided if he thinks that a friendly between Sydney and a Liverpool team with a number of retired players would attract a world audience.

    1. I believe Liverpool took ABC’s coverage and used it for their club channel LFC so the coverage escaped Australia. Not sure how many watched though, surely it would only be diehard Liverpool fans.

      1. I’d imagine that Liverpool TV would provide their own commentary and analysis, not use the ABC’s. I think it’s probably safe to say that the world has been spared!

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