This summer saw the 17th FIFA World Cup from South Korea and Japan. England and the Republic of Ireland were there, but there was a lot of competition on the pitch, just like there was in the world of sports radio between BBC Radio Five Live and talkSPORT competing for listeners during the tournament.
Due to the way the EBU distribute there rights, talkSPORT were not allowed to cover the event officially from any of the stadia, giving them a clear disadvantage in covering the World Cup in comparison to their rivals, BBC Radio Five Live. However, due to the games being on during the day, talkSPORT knew that this would be a perfect opportunity to gain listeners. So, as the BBC jetted off the entire Five Live staff to the Far East, talkSPORT knuckled down to make sure that their coverage, live and from talkSPORT's studios in London, was the best that it could possibly be and what listeners wanted to listen to throughout June and July.
Chief Executive Kelvin MacKenzie and the boys, however, were hit with more bad news. Firstly, talkSPORT's legendary commentator Alan Parry retired from commentating after the 2002 FA Cup Final between Arsenal and Chelsea. Then, in a talkSPORT kickabout, Chief Football Correspondent Jon Driscoll broke his leg meaning he wouldn't be able to travel to the World Cup. Despite all the odds stacked against them, talkSPORT managed to produce some of the best radio coverage of the tournament on offer.
talkSPORT unveiled a great new line-up in early June for the coverage. Mornings would still see Alan Brazil and Mike Parry's great No Nonsense Sports Breakfast, whereas afternoon regulars Hawksbee and Jacobs were pushed back to 7:00pm-10:00pm. However, the latter pair were replaced with the great 2002 Today at Drive. This show was a mixture of World Cup news, opinionated reaction, and a chance for the fans to express their opinions in this highly acclaimed show. Adrian Durham, talkSPORT's underrated football presenter, did a brilliant job of presenting the show along with the likes of Alvin Martin, Joe Jordan, Chris Powell, and Steve Hodge, as well as Gabrielle Marcotti and the rest of the excellent Football First in Europe team. Marcotti, and his rants against the Koreans "cheating" after they knocked out the Italians was one of the highlights of the great show, far preferred over Simon Mayo on Five Live broadcasting at the same time.
talkSPORT also came up with the new innovation that is talkSPORT's full match highlights. People who had missed the big game of the day, could hear talkSPORT's unofficial commentary of the goals. This idea was so good, that it has been copied by BBC Radio Five Live and their local stations, as well as many commercial stations since the World Cup, just like TEAMtalk 252 and Virgin Radio copied talkSPORT's idea of unofficial commentary. TEAMtalk's commentators were virtual unknowns to the average listener, and this was perhaps one of the reasons that the station was shut down a few months after the World Cup.
talkSPORT had full, unofficial coverage of all games involving England and the Republic of Ireland as well as the knockout stages, but despite this they needed a main commentator. Jim Proudfoot was handpicked to replace Alan Parry for this extremely important duty. Many people doubted this choice, as although he had been working on talkSPORT's Football First Premiership Live for the past season, his only mainstream exposure was his much criticised commentary on U Direct Sport's coverage of the World Cup Qualifier between Finland and England when Howard Wilkinson took caretaker charge. However, along with Alvin Martin, he proved his selection, and together they were the best commentary team covering the World Cup.
Whereas talkSPORT's commentary team was a pleasant surprise, the BBC, seeing the threat of talkSPORT, signed up big name commentators Jonathan Pearce and Andy Gray, who infamously got into a spat with the unpopular Five Live regular, Alan Green. Green, one of the reasons why I started listening to talkSPORT, along with a band of faceless, passionless BBC employees from the Home Counties, provided us with the same dull commentary Five Live listeners are used to. The egotistical, biased and miserable Green was especially poor, being highly criticised for his commentary on the "dull" England v Nigeria game, as well as coming up with the classic line during the final: "Ronaldo wins the World Cup for Germany."
Speaking of classic lines, there were plenty during the unforgettable day of Friday 7th of June. England beat Argentina 1-0 in the crunch tie of the World Cup, which lead Jim Proudfoot to produce the classic line: "Marradona, you know what you can do with your hand of God". Quality, pure passion, it was part of the trails for days and Jim later said in 2002 Today that this game was "the proudest moment in his commentary career". Another classic line came on that 2002 Today when Adrian Durham, himself elated, when asking the talkSPORT office about the game, asked station reporter and presenter Claire Furlong "Do you think we can go all the way?" to which she replied "What, you and me Adrian?" Class.
Other mentions deserve to go out to Dominic McGuiness. With the wealth of talented reporters talkSPORT have, such as Geoff Peters, Jonathan Beales and Dave Roberts, it was a surprise that talkSPORT picked the former Three Day Weekend host to travel to Japan. However he did a fine job reporting for 2002 Today. Hawksbee and Jacobs were even better than usual with the World Cup Versions of the excellent Fool's Panel and the hilarious Sport or Nought with Graham Beecroft. The highlight of the show was "Disco" John reading Pele's World Cup Murder Mystery, which was so laughably poor it did not even get played to the end. Also, despite not commentating on the World Cup for the first time since the 1970s, Alan Parry did a great job on his excellent Sunday phone-in, Alan Parry's World Cup.
talkSPORT's only failings during the World Cup were that Mike Dickin or Richard Kaufman were on air during some live matches. Not covering games like Croatia v Ecuador is annoying, however to give talkSPORT their dues, they did cover nearly all of the games in the latter stages. Also, talkSPORT's great pundit Ray Houghton was not on the station much during the tournament, simply because the scorer of the Republic Of Ireland's most famous goal, was in South Korea and Japan as part of RTE TV's coverage. However, this allowed for quality pundits like Steve Hodge, Chris Powell and Raphael Honigstein to be discovered, and get more airtime than they would with Houghton around.
Since the end of the tournament, talkSPORT's highly praised team has attracted interest from other media groups. Five Live snapped up Jon Driscoll, the now former talkSPORT Chief Football Correspondent. Although reasons why he left are unknown, if Drisco walked out on talkSPORT and joined their biggest rivals due to the fact that talkSPORT, the company who sent him to Euro 2000, did not send him to the World Cup, would destroy my, and many others respect for the reporter. Alvin Martin, due to his insightful commentary work during the World Cup, has been selected by Sky Sports to be one of the new commentators on their Nationwide League coverage, and it is rumoured that Jim Proudfoot will follow him. Fortunately, Alvin stays at talkSPORT on a similar deal to the one that Jonathan Pearce has with Channel 5 and Five Live.
In the end, despite the fact that Five Live's listening figures were bigger, talkSPORT's coverage got by far the most praise, and this goes to show that money may buy you a lot, but it cannot buy you quality, and due to the hard work they put in, that is what talkSPORT's unofficial World Cup coverage was. Just like it said in the papers, talkSPORT's coverage was "Unofficial, Unauthorised, and Brilliant".
talkSPORT's Coverage of the 2002 World Cup
Unofficial, Unauthorised, and Brilliant
Walsall Chris: September 2002 |
