It gives me no pleasure to have to write this email to a senior executive at an organisation I used to hugely admire. As head of a Supporters’ Trust set up by Manchester City fans 10 years ago, I worked with BBC journalists, presenters and producers at both national and local level. The BBC should be a by-word for quality and impartiality and it may even seem totally trivial but it is worrying evidence of BBC Sport seemingly joining the race to the bottom in football journalism.
The signs have been there for a while and you will find I have made complaints to the BBC before, along with many of my fellow Manchester City fans but the original catalyst for this email was a tweet sent out from BBC Sport on May 1st 2016 comparing the cost of the Leicester City team to what was described as the preferred Manchester City starting line-up. This was not long before the match in which Leicester City played Manchester United so it might have been legitimate to compare the cost of Leicester’s team to that of their opponents, whose own expenditure has been not inconsiderable. But Manchester City were chosen for the comparison.
Some other incidents:
· Prior to the home Champions League game against PSG, the BBC were tweeting that there were 1,500 unsold seats, despite the game being sold out. Even when it was pointed out that it was sold out the line was “On Monday afternoon there were still around 1,500 tickets available, despite City having run an active advertising campaign to try and maximise sales”. In the previous round, Chelsea were well below capacity for PSG’s visit. Did the BBC tweet anything about this?
· On the BBC 1 o’clock news after the draws for the Champions League & Europa League semi-finals, the lead story was about Liverpool’s draw against Villareal and no mention of City’s draw against Real Madrid in a more important competition.
· In July 2015, there was a post on the BBC Sport Facebook page quoting Manchester City transfer fees in Euros, presumably to make them look bigger. When challenged, they quickly produced a version in sterling (which over-stated fees even then).
· I made a formal complaint about a 5 Live sport bulletin last season which claimed Arsenal had moved into second place when in fact Manchester City were in second place, as the most cursory glance at the league table would have shown.
· Last summer the BBC reported Anthony Martial’s transfer fee to Manchester United as “£36m which may rise to £58m”. Yet Raheem Sterling’s fee was reported as £49m, rather than £44m which may rise to £49m, which is the correct figure.
· Recently the 606 programme were challenged on Twitter as to why they focused on Manchester United & Liverpool and they replied “Ratings”. Does the BBC really set so much store on ratings above quality and impartiality?
These are just random examples that came to mind. Not only that, but BBC Sport appears to have merged with the Manchester United Communications Department and be under the leadership of Philip Townsend rather than yourself. ‘Class of 92’, documentaries on Rooney & the Beckhams (who have clearly been using the media to advance their claims for a knighthood).
However I held off sending this thinking it might be seen as petty and partisan but some incidents in the last few days have forced me to change my mind. First of all, on listening to BBC Radio 5 Live from 8am to 10am on Sunday morning there were five news & sport bulletins on the hour and half hour. Not a single one of these mentioned that Manchester City were playing later that day but all mentioned the Manchester United game at Leicester. Given that City could (and did) climb into 3rd place if they won that game, you’d think it might be worth 10 seconds of the BBC’s time.
Secondly was the ridiculous editing of the City v Swansea game highlights (you only had two games to show) and the sycophantic coverage given to Juan Mata’s yellow card - “he’s a nice lad”, “not that sort of player” “was a bit late” (when even Gary Neville on Sky said it was pre-meditated and born out of frustration). Then there was a ludicrous article by Jermaine Jenas, which can only be described as “shit stirring”.
But the absolute and utter nadir was reached with a photograph & accompanying caption on the BBC MOTD Facebook page (attached) which was times at 13:15 on February 5th. “Pete The Badge” is known by all City fans who attend games as he goes home and away, travelling from his home in Milton Keynes. He has mild learning difficulties I believe but is a smashing chap who wouldn’t hurt a fly. Note that his name is Pete, not Bertie, which is one of the perjorative terms used by Manchester United fans to describe us (‘Bertie Bitters’).
What you’ve done is deliberately set up a completely innocent and harmless person, who loves his club and has followed it for many years, for ridicule. The use of the term ‘Bertie’ proves beyond doubt that this was malicious. This is both disgraceful and shameful, particularly from an organisation that protected and promoted a notorious paedophile for many years.
You are the BBC and supposedly run on the basis of objectivity and impartiality. You are (or at least were) a by-word for quality broadcasting. Even the worst of the red-top media wouldn’t stoop as low as that photo of Pete and it needs to stop.
Yours sincerely,
