With the Euros in full swing and the GAA championships coming into the business end of the season, sports pundits are spending more time than ever on our TV screens.
However, Sunday Independent journalist Declan Lynch thinks the quality of analysis has taken a nosedive in recent years.
He said RTÉ’s former soccer punditry team of John Giles, Eamon Dunphy, Liam Brady and Bill O’Herlihy were on a “different level” than teams of today.
On The Hard Shoulder, Mr Lynch said pundits are being sourced from the wrong places nowadays.
“We don't realise just how limited the punditry is due to the fact that they're almost entirely former professional footballers,” he said.
“Their talent is for playing football and from a young age they are institutionalised with one particular thing in mind, that the media is your enemy, and you don’t want to be telling those guys anything.
“So many of the pundits are kind of institutionalised and compromised in a lot of ways, you know.
“I'm not saying you should never have former players; I'm just saying there should be at least a mix of people and of course, there will be exceptions who are just brilliant.”
Pundits decline
Mr Lynch said many modern pundits tend to ignore the elephant in the room.
“In English football at the moment, you have this huge scandal involving Manchester City and 115 charges against them,” he said.
“99 times out of 100, you'll be looking at pundits talking about City with none of them mentioning it and it suits TV producers very well.
“They don’t want any trouble, that’s the type of people they are, they don’t want controversialists”.
25 January 2020; Eir Sport pundit Joe Brolly before the Allianz Football League Division 1 Round 1 match between Donegal and Mayo at MacCumhaill Park in Ballybofey, Donegal. Photo by Oliver McVeigh/SportsfileThe sports journalist said the same is true regarding RTÉ.
“Joe Brolley is gone, and you always felt Dunphy was kind of a burden for them, even though he was so good and so good on television, he was liable to get them into trouble a bit,” he said.
“I think there’s an executive instinct that they welcome banality and that welcomes people saying as little as possible but being cheerful about it.
“And there’s a lot of laughing nowadays.”
The upcoming weeks promise more punditry as we approach the Euro 2024 final on July 12th, followed by the conclusion of the GAA's All Ireland Finals by July 28th.
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Main image: Bill O'Herlihy pictured with John Giles, Eamon Dunphy and Liam Brady ahead of the FIFA 2014 World Cup Final as he prepares for his final broadcast for RTE Television Photo: RollingNews.ie/RTE
