Hats off to Ian Dennis, Alistair Bruce-Ball and John Murray.
According to reports, the three commentators ‘all took a stand under immense pressure to commentate for the BBC over the weekend.’
The Mail has the story here and there’s an excellent piece in The Times today (Solidarity with BBC football staff who actually showed up for work) that is well worth reading.
All three are heroes in my view because it’s far harder to swim against the tide, especially when you know what’s coming. (Insults and accusations of being a “scab”.)
Fair play too to Pat Nevin. The former Chelsea and Everton winger, who is now a Five Live pundit and co-commentator, has never hidden his liberal, progressive views, although they’re more cultural than party political.
Like Ian Dennis, Alistair Bruce-Ball and John Murray (my favourite Five Live commentator), Nevin actually turned up for work on Sunday.
Not for him the pathetic posturing and virtue signalling of other pundits and commentators, some of whom weren’t even scheduled to work but decided to tell the world that, if they had been, they would have withdrawn their labour.
Speaking on Five Live, Nevin is reported to have said:
“I happen to stand on roughly the same hill as Gary Lineker, but we have to understand that if we have stringent opinions and other alternative – and indeed opposite – opinions, they would have to be allowed.
“That is not easy for an impartial organisation like the BBC to cope with. I’m going to talk about this for a long time to come, we’ve got to debate it – the future and direction of this organisation, possibly under threat institution, could depend on this.
“It’s about getting on and getting it right from hereon in. I could go on, I won’t, we’ve got a game of football here to talk about."
Clearly, Nevin gets it. Unlike many of his peers, who arguably don’t know or care, he understands that the BBC is supposed to be an impartial organisation.
Kudos too to Chris Sutton, another former Chelsea footballer whose most successful years were at Blackburn, and later Celtic.
Sutton’s radio persona is that of a controversialist, or contrarian. He winds people up with his arguments but it’s clearly an act.
‘Writing’ for the Daily Mail, however, he was more Nevin than (Gary) Neville, the Labour-supporting ex-footballer and Sky Sports pundit, and much better for it:
Many football fans will have been really disappointed with the reduced coverage. The brilliant Ian Dennis, who went ahead with covering Leeds v Brighton on 5 Live on Saturday, summed it up best on air.
He said he is a commentator and felt it was important to provide a service to the 5 Live audience. And that’s where I stand. Gary has had great support from fans and fellow broadcasters, pundits and presenters. I support free speech.
The power to be able to speak freely is pivotal. But the situation is complicated and I feel greatly for BBC staffers who are not sure what to do and freelancers who are losing work because of this situation.
Nevin, btw, gave me and thousands of other Chelsea supporters one of the great moments at Stamford Bridge. As I wrote here:
One moment – which I remember vividly to this day – was little Pat Nevin beating at least five players from the halfway line before dribbling round the goalkeeper only to shoot wide. It didn't matter. The crowd stood and gave him a standing ovation and Chelsea went to win the match, against Newcastle, 4-0.
The Chelsea website has a report of the match, in 1983, and I wos there!
But wait, what's this?
Fortunately for viewers in the north-east, an industrial dispute meant no ‘Match of the Day’ that night.
Fancy that!
See also: Let's talk about Gary Lineker