It's easy to be unbiased and impartial when your team aren't playing..No one was complaining about Leonardos bias toward Brazil..Of course he should favour Brazil as Gullit should favour Holland , just as Alan Shearer should favour an English stand point..It's life, football is a passionate and Nationalistic game

It's not only England who thought Portugal took too many dives last night , the evidence is in black and white..To compare what happened with the penalty for France and what the Portugal players were doing is a world apart..

If you want boring impartial commentary watch golf not football

You heard right. I wouldn't wipe my a*se on the Sun, in case it got dirty. In most countries a newspaper like the Sun would be treated as a joke and nobody would buy it; here it's a national institution, at least for everyone with an IQ under 70.

Unfortunately "tabloid culture" has been embraced by the BBC as well, hence our atrocious one-eyed television coverage where we are great and so are Brazil and everyone else is crap - except Argentina maybe.

As for Alan Hansen being a legend; I've never heard someone spout so much rubbish (and it's the same old rubbish every time) with so much smugness - the guy is so up his own jacksie it's incredible. If he's god's gift to football why isn't he in management? Anyone can sit there and state the obvious game after game, year after year. I wish he would f*ck off, and take Motty, Wrighty, Mark Bright and even dear old Garth with him.

Yeah Leonardo was terrible at it aswell & I thaught Marcel Desailly was even worse than him although I think Desailly was on ITV not to sure

I just wasn't sure that it was him who said those words, because there were more people commenting.

And yes, I do know him. Believe it or not, he was my favourite English player when I was a kid (it wasn't that long ago, as you can tell from when Alan Shearer stopped playing ). He definitely was the best in scoring goals but, please, inciting violence like he did referring to the return of Rooney and Ronaldo to Man. U. trainings is just unacceptable in a reference TV (or so I thought, but apparently they're following the same line of the English tabolids ) such as BBC.

(I wonder what's the English media legitimacy of criticizing certain aspects of Portugal - the country - when they can't show a minimum of impartiality in something that is JUST a football match?)

What incited violence are you refering to?

Everyone is entitled to an opinion even Alan Shearer

The BBC are one of the most respected media organisations in the world who do fantasic charity appeals , war correspondance and a host of other great things..During the Second World War the BBC World Service was at the forefront of life for hundreds of thousands of people who were cut off from the rest of the world

Clearly they are biased towards British teams and individuals and why shouldn't they be...

The rest of the World take a couple of snippets from the Sun (a paper that factory workers take to work to do the crossword) and suddenly the whole British media is corrupt and xenophobic..

Accept reality , every country has media that is biased and impartial in one way or another

Should we be all like the Swiss and stay neutral in everything?

Just the part where he hoped Rooney would stick one on Ronaldo in Training.
This from the paid for BBC football expert and not your average Joe from the local boozer and all in the same month that his ex team-mate was in court for sticking one on his own team mate in a match.

Sorry this is not the stuff of legends but the spouting’s of a very poorly educated has been.
His constant umm and aaahs are just an indication he suffers from Insertfootatitus

Being biased is something I could accept if it dealt with the football not the opinions of somebody who spent his whole playing career in dispute with referees and their decisions about his balance problems.


I’m afraid Shearers media career is over before it started regardless of the carefully placed Daughters video showing him as a normal caring family man.

If it were your Son/Daughter Alan how would you feel you should know you were around Beckham when the press had a field day after his sending off.

Beckham appealed for the press to leave Rooney alone so the obvious choice is pick another hate figure to sell copy.


Worked last time

Perhaps we should use the antics of diving continuously to teach our children then..

If C Ronaldo has had a problem during this World Cup with booing it was of his own making because of his questionable sportsmanship in the France and England game..It has nothing to do with a throw away comment made by a commentator in the heat of the moment

You seem to be under the illusion that somehow it was masses of English booing him the other night but in actuality it was mainly French supporters..

If you want to talk about incited violence maybe we should dig a little deeper and go back to Euro 2000 where 3 of the Portugese players Abel Xavier , Nuno Gomez & Paulo Bento each recieved upto 7 month bans after the semi-final..Nuno Gomes for pushing a referee

To blame the BBC and the British media for bad feeling towards Portugals football team is just using a scapegoat..

Ronaldo was one of the more disliked players in English football before this World Cup for his antics on and off the field..It has nothing atall to do with him being Portugese..It has to do with his diving and unnecessary show boating..

Yeap, they were stupid and deserved the 7 months ban - definitely. Just like João Pinto in WC2002 for all the sh#t he's done with the referee and so on. They had no excuse for doing that and they were hardly criticised in Portugal! Fortunately the team kind of grew up since then and it's for their own merit they're now among the best in the world. Yeah, they do suck sometimes - who doesn't?

I don't kow what I should be using a scapegoat for . To justify what? Us being defeated by France? No, thanks. I deal well with seeing another team scoring a goal and winning the match. And if Henry and Ribery dived? Fine, Ronaldo and others dived, too. Well, this is not fine, what I mean is that it makes no sense keep talking about this kind of stuff that unfortunately everyone does.

The bad feelings about the Portuguese team have started spreading throughout the press some days before the match against England (and they all somehow forgot that, in the pitch of the match POR:NED there was also a team who behaved as "badly" as ours!). No one seemed to care about the aggressions our players suffered. What was the important part for the press? Creating controversy around the Portuguese players, including trying to pressure FIFA to suspend Figo. As if England had something to do with the previous match played by the Portuguese team and with the referee's decision of not sending Figo off (yeah, he should have seen the red card, just like the Dutch that, at 6', kicked Ronaldo's leg!)...

Sorry for the such bad image I have about the English media lacking impartiality, but I don't think it's my fault, is it?

Maybe the concept of journalism is different from country to country . If so, I apologise. If it's ok for you to have a biased press (at least, that's the image they give away!), then this conversation is leading to nowhere because we're both speaking under different ideals.

The problem is that the Portugese people are taking comments from a throw away paper like The Sun (todays news and tomorrows chip wrapping paper) and judging our media based upon that...If you were to pick up a copy of The Telegraph or The Guardian you would see no malice towards anything Portugese..

If you are going to judge anyones media you have to have a broader base for you accusations than 2 days worth of back pages from The Sun..

We have many award winning sports journalists who do a fine job and are not biased to a degree other than being British..

Most people who are complaining have never even read an English newspaper and are just going by the juggernaut of hearsay and over exaggeration sweeping around the world due to a heated football match

Actually I was talking about the BBC and their worldwide coverage and the fact that England is lauded as multi cultural.

They have a duty of care but have been no better than the Gutter Press

The BBC do not have to sensationalise anything to sell itself and as for throw away comments that’s an assumption not unlike the Ronaldos wink assumption

I could be wrong and will look for an apology from Shearer or the BBC

I might be a while so start without me..


By the way Im not alone

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/worldcup/2006/07/blog_672006_you_dive_me_crazy.html

If you want an apology you can write to Mr Shearer care of Newcastle United FC

I

I was particularly "impressed" with this comment:


13.

At 01:19 AM on 07 Jul 2006,

Jane wrote:
Through no fault of their own my children find themselves born and bred in England with a Portuguese father. The World Cup and Euro competitions have become times of extreme mixes of emotion for us. The hype begins long before the competition and we are subjected to constant questioning as to which country we will be supporting. That alone is not surprising but what is surprising is the reason for the asking. A few people are magnaminous, intelligent, compassionate enough, call it what you will, to wish those of us who do support Portugal good luck but the majority become hostile and clearly irritated by our presence. This is all evident long before the first game is played, long before any wins or defeats or questions of gamesmanship. Whereas some of us are more than comfortable with wishing our opponent a good tournament, others will refuse to entertain this idea preferring cheap jibes and something along the lines of “lets see if you’re still smiling after the game…”
We are a decent family with five children, non of whom get into trouble at school who are constantly commended on good behaviour and who consistently obtain above average grades. They all have wide circles of friends. However, following both Euro 2004 and so far during the World Cup some of my children have had to have days off from school because of the incessant hounding following any games that have involved Portugal playing. It doesn’t matter if Portugal win or lose, children and in some cases teachers have been quick to repeat what they have heard the commentators say. Rarely do you hear a first hand account of any match action. This is what dismays me the most that young children are not surprisingly so influenced by accounts of incidents by commentators and press and yet the likes of the bbc do not seem to grasp the responsibility this puts on them.
Unless viewers watch with the sound switched off they are going to be highly influenced by anything that is being spoken over or around a game. This is not rocket science so why don’t those commentators, especially those highly respected because of the fact that they represent the bbc, take that responsibility seriously. To sit down excitedly to watch the quarter final and witness within the first few minutes Figo being booed by the predominantly England supporting crowd as he read a statement on anti-racism when Beckham had been given the courtesy to read the same statement uninterrupted, to hear no comment on this fact during or since by any English media is at best ignorant at worst malicious. Whatever Ronaldo has or hasn’t done he does not deserve the horrendous treatment that he has been subjected to. For heavens sake he’s a human being. Most of the people booing so vehemently, whatever their nationality, would not treat their enemies in everyday life with as much contempt or hound them with such dogged determination. The trouble is if the commentators let this be broadcast without encouraging any debate on whether it is right or wrong for a fellow human being to be treated with so little respect that is the message they put out to children and adults alike as being acceptable.
Whatever a person has done subjecting them to punishment without a fair trial is wrong and not the way for a civilised society to behave. At school today my 11 year old daughter was in a class that had to divide themselves into teams and give themselves a name. One team announced to the teacher that they wanted to be called the “We Hate Ronaldo” team. The teacher allowed this saying “So do I”. I can’t really bare to think how my daughter must have felt at that moment and as I said before this is only one of many constant remarks that we have endured as a family during what could be such a fantastic time of respect and admiration for skill and gamesmanship whether it’s the kind we’re used to not. Of course there will be bad play, foul play but if we can not comment on this with an unbiased well informed, humane attitutude then sadly football and it’s commentating becomes the propagator of much worse misdemeanors. Grow up and think about what you’re teaching the kids about the game and life in general.

Maybe Janes children should be taught the ethics of diving continuously untill they get their own way or constantly surrounding the teacher complaining whenever they want something highlighted or to fall over holding their faces when tackled on the playing field or pushing referees or maybe Janes children should be sat down to watch the Portugal - Holland game to show them how to behave in life or maybe they should go out and headbutt people...

You people make me laugh , you demand impartiality yet you are so biased yourself you can't see through the rainclouds..

Do as we say and not as we do!

Maybe Janes children should watch England vs Portugal and be thaught how to kick someone in the balls

This is what makes me very angry! Xenofobia! The teacher should be called to attention. If it was with my daughter, I would. Maybe it wouldn't make a difference but they would be more carefull next time!

This is a serious matter. We should be more carefull to show children that its only a game and to not transfer this hate to us, as citizens of the world. Many wars have started with less!!!

Media should be punished! Red card!!!!

So the next time a schoolboy headbutts another player or stamps on him we shall blame the media shall we..

yea, yea, Robelido! Mix everything! It's easier when you're fun! LOLOLOL

Hope you never now the feeling!

"Know"

I think the BBCs coverage has been excellent as well as ITV. If you dont like it, dont watch it!!! Easy solution!!!

Yes canary, we all know very well what is your opinion! Even if it questions moral values!