[Albion] The Unconscious / Conscious Bias Towards the ‘’Big Clubs’

[Johnny RoastBeef]

So there was an article / thread on here a few days back about the unconscious bias towards white players by commentators - we had a discussion, good thread, some couldn’t see it, some could, it was a fairly small study etc... fine...

So I’d like to talk about the clear and obvious bias from the commentators and referee / officials teams in the premier league. Now I’m not one to get too offended by outspoken, clueless pundits particularly - I find it funny at their ignorance and egg on face, but my word it was everywhere tonight and v Man Utd.

Tyler and Carragher decided that Liverpool had played half arsed after going 2 up. It wasn’t down to the Albion playing some great stuff. Maty Ryan dives the side a shot is going that deflects in completely the other direction and he’s ‘in no mans land / scrambling / all over the place’ apparently. Everything time and time again was pro Liverpool or making excuses for them not battering us... the list was endless. Souness comes out with disrespectful rubbish at half time then is astonished that the young left back, who was booked after his 2nd or 3rd bookable offence was subbed and claimed ‘he must be injured’. Clearly not noticing the battering young Lamptey (who looked a much better player) had given him... Even at the end of the match the studio called it a ‘comfortable 3-1 victory’ which it blatantly wasn’t...

The officials tonight didn’t get much wrong. But you notice most 50/50 decisions go the way of the ‘Champions’ without hesitation. I think there were 3 or 4 elbows / arms to the head, a very suspect tackle by Trent AA and Gomez quite possibly denying a clear goal scoring opportunity in that match. I’m not convinced any of them were blatant reds etc but again, as with the Man U second goal the other night, we see no VAR check. No replays etc etc, no time delay. No lines for tight offsides. Whereas I’m convinced if it was the other way around the game would have stopped several times for 17 replays of an Albion players arm catching a Liverpool players’ head... there’s a clear, clear bias to the top 6 (on paper), the ‘big clubs’ and it’s simply not right...

Agree / disagree? Notice it etc...?

Re the match officiating, Probably your own bias skewing what you are seeing and hearing. A quick check on the Liverpool forums shows similar complaints in our favour.

 

[Originunknown]

On the game last night,

This was a HOME game yet we had to put up with Sounes and Carragher.

Sky can be given feedback,
skysportsfeedback@sky.uk

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

In terms of commentators/analysts/media...the proportion of fans that are Man Utd or Liverpool fans is massive. It completely dwarves the rest of the clubs. When you consider that a large percentage of the rest is made up by the remainder of the top six, the proportion of the audience that supports any other club when one of them is playing is almost negligible. So it's not surprising that they get steered towards talking about them, and once they've done that a few times it becomes ingrained.

Yes. The fact is the only people interested in us is us. Unless we go on a remarkable plucky charge up the division at some point, when the tellyboys will be able to go 'oooh, look at them' for a few seconds

 

[Return of the Rev]

Teams like Brighton are meant to be in the chorus line or just meat for the gladiators. Everybody knows

 

[boik]

Thought the coverage was fine and enjoyed the game. Sorry.

 

[gazingdown]

This is not a new thing. Media (well MOTD esp) always the same. If the "big 6 team" win it's because of how good they are. If they lose, it's because of mistakes/problems they have made.
I've rarely heard a pundit say, well <insert non-big-6 team> were simply better than <top-6-team>

When they analyse a goal against a big-6 team, they mostly look at mistakes the big-6 team defence made, where they need to improve etc., however when non-top-6 team concede a goal, it's rarely the same analysis but always about how big-6 team were too good for defence.

I've long given up caring about it TBH, it's just the way they are and it's boring and gives little insight into the game.

Would be good to have better pundits who give better analysis and insight into the game. Some "new" pundits start by doing this (showing how forward made space, how team attacked, tactics, defensive setup etc.) then after a while they get lazy into Hansen mode (Shearer has clearly done this over past few years) with tired cliche's and little insight into the game. Be good for more non-forward/playing pundits too. More defenders/midfielders, keepers, managers/coaches (especially) and refs. You get the odd token one but like there to be more.

 

[nickbrighton]

The commentators are better on the American channels. Is is Townsend on one of them - he always seems pretty fair and gives praise where it's due.

we always try to watch the NBC streams, commentators and studio pundits usually have done their homework, have a much more balanced view of the game and are noticeably less "Big Six" centred. Having watched the borefest that is Souness in the studio a couple of times , and listened to the inane "banter" of both sky and bt commentators, the NBC football presentation is a different league. The BBC have shown up how bad Sky and BT really are, although we all know BBC are also Big Six happy, but they are so much better at live sport when they get the opportunity to show it

 

[Eric Youngs Contact Lense]

Re the match officiating, Probably your own bias skewing what you are seeing and hearing. A quick check on the Liverpool forums shows similar complaints in our favour.

You may be right, but of all the fan's I know, Liverpool Fans's are the most blinkered. They howl with anger at any physical stuff as teams "try and kick them off the park" and yet repeatedly fail to see those characteristics in TAA, Gomes, Robertson, Henderson. Last night, one of them was gracious to say that we played well for 20 minutes.. Couldn't see that their young full-back was arguably lucky not to have been booked before he eventually was - the attempted pull-back on Lamptey for example.
Regards the punditry - it does seem weird not to have both teams represented in some shape way or form, but had we sneaked a draw last night, we all know the world would have been focused on Liverpool taking the foot off the gas. That they scored their 3rd has allowed some generous praise to come our way, moreso than had we taken a point off them.

 

[Spiros]

I was really angry with the commentary tonight. Our goal was superb. That moustached **** said it was a poor cross. What a ****-stain. It was a free flowing fast move where 3 kicks from our half took the ball wide at pace. The ball was whipped in to the very Center of the box where it was then guided in. It wasn’t behind or too high or weak, it resulted in a goal thereby being.... a perfect cross. Or at least a ****ing good cross. I’m ****ing cross . ****

That really pissed me off too. Lamptey's cross was 'poor' yet the corner that Robertson shanked to Salah for their 3rd was a wonderful move from the training ground. Yeah, right

 

[Uh_huh_him]

I defended Hemed on that (biased I know), but I recall many NSC’ers feeling it was an awful act and later being relieved that he was moved on as “not good enough for the PL”. A shame, he was doing more than alright for us.

I defended him too, simply because it didn't look like he purposefully did it, just didn't take any evasive action.
When compared with Barton's assault on Kayal (no retrospective action), it was pretty innocuous.

The level of exposure to these incidents by the pundits, has a direct impact to the rulings of the governing body.
If the pundits say it's wrong then the governing body go along with it,
If the pundits don't look into it (conscious bias) then they let it go.
See Guendouzi for the most recent example.

 

[rippleman]

On the game last night,

This was a HOME game yet we had to put up with Sounes and Carragher.

Sky can be given feedback,
skysportsfeedback@sky.uk

Feedback given. I will report back in the unlikely event that I receive a reply.

 

[Palacefinder General]

The commentators are better on the American channels. Is is Townsend on one of them - he always seems pretty fair and gives praise where it's due.

Maybe I’m just thick, but I never understand the animosity towards Townsend, your summation of him on the money and there are many worse commentators than him. I guess he’s not insightful enough for some.

 

[Normal Rob]

Maybe I’m just thick, but I never understand the animosity towards Townsend, your summation of him on the money and there are many worse commentators than him. I guess he’s not insightful enough for some.

Not for me, Clive.

 

[melias shoes]

Agreed

 

[Gwylan]

As I have said on another thread, Martin Tyler is so far up Liverpool’s arse he has probably found the source of the Mersey.

It's interesting to read the Guardian comments this morning. There are many Liverpool fans moaning vociferously about Tyler as he's so anti-Liverpool. He can't hide the bile in his voice when talking about them, as just one comment had it.

I guess that he must be a decent commentator if he's seen as both pro and anti Liverpool.