Ian Wright fires ITV message after BBC World Cup criticism | Football | Sport
The iconic skyline of the Big Apple provided a dramatic backdrop as Keane, Wright and Pougatch dissected Thomas Tuchel’s side’s emphatic 3-0 win. The setup stands in stark contrast to the BBC, which has chosen to cover the World Cup from its studio in Salford. BBC director Alex Kay-Jelski recently defended the decision to remain on home soil, reminding critics that any investment in an on-site studio in the US, along with flying out reporters and television crews, would ultimately come at the taxpayer’s expense. As the ITV team revelled in their New York surroundings, Wright offered a telling remark about their impressive base.
Opening the broadcast, Pougatch declared: “Welcome to our New York loft apartment, home for six weeks of coverage of the World Cup. We hope you will love this view as much as we do, a view of the buildings of lower Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridge. You are thinking it must be AI; I promise you it is real.”
After Keane responded with “Amazing, fantastic,” Wright enthusiastically added: “It’s amazing, unbelievable set. It’s the World Cup, it should be this, it should be grand, massive.”
It’s a sharp contrast to the BBC’s studio setup back in Salford. The Beeb faced fierce criticism for their choice to keep the core of their World Cup broadcasting operation on home soil.
Only a handful of sports journalists have made the trip across the Atlantic for the tournament. BBC director of Sport Kay-Jelski recently defended the move, telling the Daily Mail: “Right now, I’m incredibly happy with it. To have what would probably be an extra couple of hundred people out there – and that’s before you build a studio – you’re talking millions.
“If I was standing here saying everything is going to be done from a studio in Dallas, you would rightly be saying to me, ‘How can you justify that expense?
“I don’t think the answer from a financial sustainable point of view is to say everyone can go. I don’t think that is a very clever way of me to spend licence fee money.”
Keane has also spoken candidly about the rivalry between ITV and the BBC, suggesting it even extends to the pundits working across both broadcasters. Speaking on Sky Bet’s Road To American mini-series, he said: “The rivalry between the BBC and ITV pundits is a bit strange, but I think it’s good that there’s a bit of tension.
“I think you need a bit of competition. Let’s not kid ourselves, there is definitely tension. Even from pundits who work with other pundits. The BBC might have the younger pundits, but they’re two completely different shows. The people who work for the BBC and ITV in the background, they are about numbers, and maybe that filters through to the pundits.”
