Reviewing The List

Fighting Talk had never been the kind of programme where new items of news had been broken to me, but having been away in Birmingham last week, I had missed a lot of news. I didn’t know that Craig Brewster had been bagged as Inverness boss until I got home. Similarly on Saturday morning, I was listening to Fighting Talk when I found out that there was to be a review to sports Crown Jewels, the reserved list of sports events to be only televised on council telly.

I am in favour of the list, I feel that it promotes sports which normally wouldn’t receive much exposure, even if 4 of the events are footballing ones (the World Cup, European Championships and the FA and Scottish Cup finals). I wasn’t aware that Test Cricket was taken off the list 10 years ago, which explains why it has disappeared off our screens, and I was unaware that the 6 Nations is not on the list either. That this tournament has remained on our screens say’s more about the organising committee, who rejected the advances of BSkyB’s millions 10 years ago, and their ethos of promoting their sport to the masses. The same goes for The Open Championship, which again I was surprised is not on the list.

Being away, I am not aware of whether this sparked a debate about Scotland games. The televising of the Scottish (footballing) national side became something of a political cause celebre last year, when Setanta acquired the rights to Scotland’s away World Cup qualifiers, which meant that none of Scotland’s World Cup qualifiers would be shown live, and when the BBC acquired the rights to Formula 1, which had Scottish football fans wondering where the money for this had come from as the Beeb had pleaded poverty earlier.

This review will cover 3 area’s. It will look at the principle of having a list, it will look at its content and the criteria determining which events may be listed. I feel that a list is vital to preserve those moments where we remembered where we were when great sporting events happened for future generations. Events which gave us joy, and crucially inspired the next generation of British sportsmen and women.