Get on the couch – football is coming home

TV Watch with Dave O’Connell

By now you may already have realised this, but it’s going to be a tough month if you don’t like football. RTE, BBC and ITV will be showing the World Cup and little else – and what non-sport they will be showing will probably be repeats because there’s no point wasting the good stuff when everyone is watching something else.

But for those who love what they used to call the beautiful game, this is like Christmas coming every day for four weeks – the best players in the world (except for the unavoidably absent Glen Whelan) participating in the greatest football spectacular on Earth.

So little wonder that the networks rolled out the big guns to capture as big a share of the viewing audience as they can.

RTE’s midfield is anchored by old reliables – Billo as the orchestrator for the final time before hanging up his sports jacket, with Gilesy and the Dunph starring as Statler and Waldorf, the latter getting off the mark with the first real drama of the event with his ‘Neymar is no good’ volley.

You add flair to your spine with a few former footballers, all boasting that unique footballing accent of Dublin mixed with North of England – step forward Ronnie Whelan and Kenny Cunningham. Or, uniquely, a man who mangles Scouse and German – the one and only Didi Hamann.

You also have to have someone that no one understands at all, because they don’t really speak English – the BBC has Leonardo but RTÉ topped that with Ossie Ardiles . . . or perhaps Brian Kerr, who communicates in a language yet to be registered. And is there any real point to Richie Sadlier?

The BBC didn’t have to think too long about who they’d take to Rio – a man called Rio obviously and Ferdinand looks instantly at home in the hot seat.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.