Football commentators sometimes stoke the fire by criticizing referees, which makes the TV viewers get emotional and forces undue pressure on referees, as well as countless subsequent articles in the press and people moaning on football radio shows.
Even worse is when referees get a crucial decision correct, such as the disallowed Bolton goal against Liverpool today. Alan Parry got it wrong claiming that Bolton goal should have been allowed. Parry must have missed the way Kevin Nolan manhandled Jose Pepe Reina and locked his arms around the Liverpool keeper before Gary Cahill nodded the ball into the Liverpool net. Even co-commentator Nigel Winterburn missed the foul too. Watch the video of the incident to help you make your own decision.
Worse still, Parry kept on claiming how Bolton were cheated of a goal and continued to criticize Rob Styles, an easy target for Parry.
Just as referees make mistakes, commentators need to be held accountable for their remarks too. Commentators often call for technology being introduced into the game, but it’s hypocritical when commentators, even with all of the technology available to them on TV, are unable to make correct calls too.
An interesting subplot to this story is that Alan Parry is a Liverpool supporter who has been criticized in the past by many TV viewers for being too biased toward Liverpool. As a result, Parry rarely commentates any games involving Liverpool on Sky television. Today’s Bolton against Liverpool match was on TWI, the international feed for football fans around the world.
Is it possible that Parry has been so concerned with his perceived bias against Liverpool that he is subconsciously trying too hard to be unbiased? And in doing so, he ends up being more biased against Liverpool. Or was it a simple mistake on his behalf?
As for Liverpool, they continue to look like true Premier League title contenders after scoring two sublime goals to win 2-0. The final score could have been at least 4-0 to Liverpool after several players missed easy changes in front of goal. Bolton, meanwhile, have a long season ahead of them if they want to elude relegation.
