Footblog

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How the BBC conned England football fans

Having just stumped up £140 odd for TV licence, I'm obviously glad that the BBC is spending some of that money on concocting outright lies to England football fans.

Take this article, headlined "England match to be internet only", which was published on the BBC News website last Monday. 

"England's World Cup qualifier in Ukraine on Saturday will be shown exclusively live to subscribers on the internet who will pay at least £4.99," the article states.

"It is understood none of the traditional broadcasters were willing to pay the asking price to screen the game, which kicks off at 1715 BST," it adds later.

"ITV has the rights to home England games and, under the terms of their contract, has taken over Setanta's broadcast rights for away friendlies.

"However, that aspect of the deal does not cover away qualifying games, and neither the BBC, ITV, Sky nor Channel Five made a successful bid for the match."

Not true. Because as we now know, the BBC did indeed make a successful bid for the highlights of the game last night. However, as it later admitted, it wasn't allowed to publicise the fact it had the highlights until after the game had finished for contractual reasons. Why? Because if many England fans had known in advance that highlights from an almost meaningless qualifier were being shown on the telly later, they wouldn't have bothered paying up to £12 to watch it live on the internet.

With its misleading news stories and false TV schedules, the BBC has conned thousands, if not millions, of fans out of money in the middle of a recession. It should be made to offer refunds to each and every one of them.

After 90 minutes of sheer hell, you're going to get...

Sacked.

Millwall 5 vs Tranmere 0.

Ta ta, John.