Celtic Fans Are Right To Be Appalled At The Pro-Ibrox Unprofessionalism Of The BBC

Last night’s coverage of the Champions League in Scotland was abysmal.

Ibrox fans had little to cheer about, while Celtic fans ended up delighted by what they saw. However, genuine neutrals tuning in would have been horrified. BBC Sports Scotland assembled one of the most biased and unprofessional panels I’ve ever seen.

Let’s be honest: nobody expects the BBC, when covering Scottish football, to be entirely free of its internal and obvious pro-Ibrox bias. We’ve discussed this on the site many times, often with a bit of humour, but it’s no joke that the primary qualification to get on their air seems to be a connection with one of the Ibrox clubs.

But last night was particularly atrocious. It’s no wonder that people like Ewan Murray voiced their displeasure on Twitter.

The BBC is our national broadcaster. Even though this was a Champions League game involving a certain club, they have a responsibility to present their analysis like professionals. They should at least pretend they’re more than just cheerleaders for the home team.

I’m glad it wasn’t just Celtic fans who were stunned by their blatant lack of standards last night. There wasn’t even the pretence that they were intent on delivering a serious broadcast meant to offer professional analysis and an honest critique of the game.

Sure, there was some satisfaction in hearing the whining about bad refereeing and the feeble attempts to gloss over what was truly a dreadful performance from both teams. But I’d have felt quite differently if I had tuned in to get a proper assessment of the match, an overview of the tactics, and some insight into how managerial choices impacted the final result.

We got none of that.

We had Alan Hutton, whose media career so far has largely been spent with the discredited Football Insider, alongside Allan McGregor, who doesn’t even have a media career, perhaps because he hasn’t yet mastered the art of speaking in complete sentences.

The BBC Radio coverage was just as bad. Derek Ferguson, one of the most notoriously awful pundits in the business, is so dim that his brother Barry has gone through much of his life in the smug contentment that he isn’t the stupidest guy in the room … and a guy like him should be virtually certain of being the stupidest guy in the room.

BBC Scotland didn’t even try to disguise their lack of professionalism with that commentary team and their studio panel. It’s not even that they didn’t consider the neutrals; they just didn’t care about the neutrals. They were targeting one audience last night and disregarding everyone else.

This is a complete disrespect for everyone who pays their TV licence and expects some level of professionalism, or at least an attempt at it.

Last night, the BBC made no effort to be anything other than an Ibrox fan club. And yes, Celtic fans eventually enjoyed the show because of the result and the obvious pain and frustration of those hacks was a source of great amusement. But it doesn’t make it right. That broadcast was a travesty, and every person involved should feel a deep sense of shame and embarrassment for what used to be a highly respected organization.

Those responsible for last night’s broadcast need to be taken to task. It had no value as a viewing experience for anyone without a vested interest in the result. Even then, it catered to just one side. As bad as the English broadcasters were during the Euros, they at least understood their role was to serve the whole audience, not just those rooting for one team to win.

I’ve seen poor work from our national broadcaster before, but last night set a new low. Celtic fans who are angry about it are absolutely justified, and they are far from alone. Everyone involved needs to take a good, long look in the mirror.

That entire broadcast should go down in infamy as one of the most unprofessional ever foisted upon the Scottish football public.