FIFA, what are you doing?

With a global population that is so used to the quality of the Premier League coverage on television, it’s ridiculous that FIFA’s TV replays are so poor. How many times in this tournament have we already been frustrated with the lack of TV replays after crucial incidents? Even though the tournament is just a few days old, it happened again today after Miroslav Klose’s horrible miss in front of goal in the first half against Australia. And it’s happened in several of the other games where we, as TV viewers, have to wait a few agonizing minutes before a replay of the incident is shown.

On top of that, it seems that FIFA is either using less cameras than a typical Premier League match or they’re not using the different cameras as well as they should. The perfect example of this was the offside decision in the game between Mexico and South Africa. There was a replay, but the camera angle was not impressive. And we longed to see a different angle to make our decision, as TV viewers, easier.

It’s almost as if FIFA doesn’t have a clue. Or, more likely, that the production crew working on the games are nowhere near the level of what we’re accustomed to seeing in the Premier League. The shame of the matter is that the TV networks around the world are handicapped by FIFA’s international feed. TV networks, such as ESPN, are not in control of the TV feed and have to rely on FIFA to provide the best possible experience. I’ve lost count how many times so far this tournament when I’ve been screaming at the TV set because of either poor production or an amateurish camera angle.

For a tournament of this calibre, it’s crucial that FIFA delivers a quality product on television. So far, their performance – much like England’s – has been severely lacking.