Euro 2012

[Adam]

Yeah the way the tournaments scheduling works out means the rankings don't really work that well. It's a similar system to what they use on the Tennis tour, but there they hold the same events at the same times every year, so if you don't do as well at say the US Open this year, you'll only lose points for doing worse than you did at last years US Open.

[Dingle]

Of course we're fourth, all those european teams just got lucky that we didn't take Rio Ferdinand/Scholes/Carrick with us.

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Not sure if anyone posted this yet.

Sorry, Mario Balotelli Didn’t Really Make This German Fan Cry: How TV Lied To You During Euro 2012

Barry Petchesky

In the 36th minute of the Euro 2012 semifinal, Mario Balotelli scored his second goal, a screamer to the top right corner. Balotelli ripped off his jersey and flexed, and the telecast cut to a woman in the stands, a German flag painted on her cheek, a single tear leaking from her eye.

"It's too early for tears," intoned ESPN's Adrian Healey, calling the action. And it was. The German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung talked to the tearful woman: Her name was Andrea, she came from Dusseldorf, and she was surprised when she started getting texts from friends asking why she'd started crying with nearly an hour of play remaining. She hadn't, Andrea told them.

Instead, she said, she had been overcome with emotion during the playing of the national anthems, before the match kicked off. A camera recorded her then, and the footage was inserted into live TV later on, at the moment it would have the most impact. The emotional power of sport, on cue.

Don't blame Healey or ESPN. They didn't know, nor did ARD, the German network airing the match, nor did ZDF or SVT, or any of the other hundreds of channels that had won the regional broadcasting rights around the world. They merely aired the streaming live signal from UEFA—which on multiple occasions goosed the live footage by adding prerecorded shots, with zero acknowledgement.

On June 13, during of Germany's group stage match against the Netherlands, cameras found German manager Joachim Löw sneaking up behind a ballboy and poking the ball from his grip. A humanizing moment in the middle of a tense game. Except it happened during warm-ups, well before the match, and was dropped in to make it appear live.

Two networks, claiming they were caught off guard by UEFA's practices, have spoken out against it.

"Of course any form of censorship or manipulation is not acceptable for us." said ARD's Euro 2012 chief editor Joerg Schoenenborn." That's why we clearly told UEFA that the German public expects coverage to be live when it says it's live. Live is live and has to stay live.''

"We have complained to UEFA that the impression was aroused that these were live pictures,'' ZDF editor-in-chief Peter Frey said. "That does not correspond to our journalistic standards.''

[Hobo]

That's amazing!

[Summers]

I'm not surprised, shocked or bothered by this.

[Johnny Drama]

That is ridiculous

[Colly]

I bet all those birds were fake too. Stock footage from the 82 World Cup or something...

[Summers]

That is ridiculous

Do you know how TV works? That's not even slightly ridiculous.

[Colly]

That is ridiculous

Do you know how TV works? That's not even slightly ridiculous.

It's not how live sport should work. It's not the X Factor where you need to tag a daft story on the back of it, its a live sporting event where the game tells its own story. I'm not exactly disgusted, but its unnecessary and slightly deceitful.

[Hobo]

I'm surprised by it either but I just love stuff like that.

[gunnar hendershow]

That was a great job by the truck to insert that footage when they did. Adds a lot to the TV broadcast.

[IAceI]

The great thing about football is that it doesn't need a script or a story, it's impulsive and unpredictable already as it is. It doesn't need doctored like reality TV to warp our conclusions and the such. That all said, it doesn't surprise me much.

[Matt]

That is ridiculous

Do you know how TV works? That's not even slightly ridiculous.

It's not how live sport should work. It's not the X Factor where you need to tag a daft story on the back of it, its a live sporting event where the game tells its own story. I'm not exactly disgusted, but its unnecessary and slightly deceitful.

If the press hadn't followed up on it, no-one would have even given it a moment's thought. It's no more unnecessary or deceitful than the cameramen who show the shots of the ridiculously attractive women that they just happen to randomly find amongst a crowd of 30,000 people because they've not been planted whatsoever.

[SeanDMan]

They aren't planted, the cameramen are just perverts.

[Colly]

That is ridiculous

Do you know how TV works? That's not even slightly ridiculous.

It's not how live sport should work. It's not the X Factor where you need to tag a daft story on the back of it, its a live sporting event where the game tells its own story. I'm not exactly disgusted, but its unnecessary and slightly deceitful.

If the press hadn't followed up on it, no-one would have even given it a moment's thought. It's no more unnecessary or deceitful than the cameramen who show the shots of the ridiculously attractive women that they just happen to randomly find amongst a crowd of 30,000 people because they've not been planted whatsoever.

Well yeah, that's why its deceitful, because your assumption is that what you're watching is what is actually happening which clearly isn't the case here.

[Adam]

Yeah, sorry, but I don't like that. I believe when I'm watching a live game that it is all live and happening there and then. To start messing with that makes me doubt it in the future and I don't want that. Live football isn't a soap opera or a reality television show or a manufactured drama piece, it doesn't need manipulating to make it seem so.

[EddieG]

Really? I watch football for the football, couldn't give a crap what happens in the crowd. Live or recorded. :/

[Hobo]

The great thing about football is that it doesn't need a script or a story, it's impulsive and unpredictable already as it is. It doesn't need doctored like reality TV to warp our conclusions and the such. That all said, it doesn't surprise me much.

You're already watching on television where someone chooses what you want to see even if it's cutting to live crowds, preredorded clips, showing the pitch from different angles or replays.

The reality is already doctored no matter what you do because you're watching on television.

[Fudge]

I can't believe any of you actually give a shit about it. Seriously it doesn't matter at all in the slightest.

[Colly]

The great thing about football is that it doesn't need a script or a story, it's impulsive and unpredictable already as it is. It doesn't need doctored like reality TV to warp our conclusions and the such. That all said, it doesn't surprise me much.

You're already watching on television where someone chooses what you want to see even if it's cutting to live crowds, preredorded clips, showing the pitch from different angles or replays.

The reality is already doctored no matter what you do because you're watching on television.

Maybe its just me, but I feel there's a difference between replays of incidents and use of non live clips for commentators to talk about as live.

I can turn off the sound to avoid Lawro lying about the game I'm watching, but can't do much about the image doing the same.