TV viewers have slammed Channel 4‘s ‘awful’ and ‘painful to watch’ coverage of England’s Nations League draw with Germany on Tuesday night.
The TV channel – currently British Sports Network of the Year – beat competitors ITV and Sky Sports for the right to show all the country’s international matches, it was announced in April, in a first foray into men’s football.
The deal will see England’s games in the Nations League, European Championship qualifiers and international friendlies on free-to-air television until 2024, with all the Three Lions’ previous Nations League games having been shown on Sky.
Channel 4 have secured the rights to several high-profile sporting events in recent months, like Emma Raducanu’s US Open win and the thrilling finale to last year’s F1 season, and has been renowned for its strong Paralympics coverage since 2012.
But it has, however, come under intense criticism from viewers for the coverage of the Three Lions’ 1-1 Nations League draw with Germany in Munich.
Jules Breach presented the action, with former England internationals Joe Cole, Jordan Nobbs and Michael Owen the pundits.
One fan tweeted: ‘Sorry but moving it to Channel 4 is awful, all too PC.
TV viewers have slammed Channel 4’s ‘awful’ coverage of England’s Nations League match
‘Pougatch, Keane, Wright and Emma Hayes all on ITV are much better, I like Emma Hayes she knows her stuff.
‘This new lot appeal to the woke, snowflake PC brigade.’
Another said: ‘Channel 4 Football Meeting: “This is very new for us having International Football, let’s make it as fresh and different as possible, what a great opportunity.”
‘”Nah, f*** it – let’s make it as woke as possible.” Meeting Closed.’
Football fans took to social media to criticise Channel 4’s coverage of England’s match
Viewers blasted the coverage for being too ‘woke’ despite having the chance of a fresh start
One fan insisted that he watches football to get away from the world’s problems
A third added: ‘This channel 4 and football woke s*** has broken me, won’t be watching the rest. No politics and the like in a football match.
‘I watch it to get away from the world problems & woke stuff, not see more of it. Sod this. I’m not against it but just leave sport alone.’
More fans agreed that Channel 4’s coverage of England’s match against Germany was ‘painful to watch’.
Some fans were just keen to share their views of how bad the coverage of the match was
Some fans were quick to criticise the presenting team that Channel 4 used for the match
Another stated: ‘Can we all agree @Channel4 coverage of football is awful.
One fan tweeted: ‘This @Channel4 coverage of @England is painful to watch. It’s amateur hour stuff, the presenting team are awful. The bloke that has lived in Germany the past 9 years, bore off!!’
Some even fans even went as far as stating they may not watch England games going forward due to the coverage.
Some even fans even went as far as stating they may not watch England games in future
One fan insisted that they should hand the England games to Sky for professional presenters
A fan posted: ‘@Channel 4 two games in and I don’t think I can watch England on your channel anymore. This is the worst coverage I’ve ever seen, my ears are bleeding.
‘I’ve got to listen on mute. Absolute tools presenting and as pundits.
Yet another insisted: ‘Appalling coverage and presenters – wooden – hand it back to Sky. Let’s have some professional presenters and professional expert analysis.’
England salvaged a point against Germany to avoid a second successive defeat with Harry Kane netting a penalty late on to cancel out Jonas Hofmann’s opener.
