´óÏó´«Ã½

Hold the lottery

• Paul Armstrong, Editor, Match of the Day
• 25 Jun 06, 09:19 AM

BERLIN. Having re-arranged the ´óÏó´«Ã½ One schedules for the weekend at a couple of days’ notice, we spent this evening re-arranging it live on the hoof as Argentina v Mexico went into extra-time.

Our planned 2215 off air, with leisurely post-match analysis, a re-cap of the Germany game and a look ahead to England tomorrow fell by the wayside. In its stead was a hasty agreement with Network Control to get off the air five minutes after coming back to the studio once extra-time and/or penalties were over.

Half-time had included some fairly subtle analysis of Rafael Marquez’s imperious display at the back for Mexico, and examples of their counter-attacking strategy.

Post-match was one swift run of the goals, together with the extraordinary and pivotal decision not to send off Gabriel Heinze for a professional foul just before half-time. We indulged in four angles of Maxi Rodriguez’s winner because it was simply one of the greatest goals in World Cup history.

The imbalance between a leisurely half-time and frenetic post-match is a perfectly natural consequence of our broadcasting on a multi-genre channel.

When you’re shunting the National Lottery and the news way off schedule, it’s only fair to non-sports lovers (poor deluded fools though they are) not to hang around longer than is strictly necessary.

While I thoroughly enjoyed being the editor involved in overrunning with a wonderful game of football, we left the gallery to find our colleagues producing the highlights looking somewhat less thrilled. An already anti-social on-air of 0120 Berlin time was now spinning off in the general direction of the sunday Eastenders omnibus.

Today, with the Germany and Argentina games, was fantastic for us in football terms. We have England today, then the vagaries of the ´óÏó´«Ã½/ITV split give us only one of the last five second round games.

And with due respect to Switzerland and Ukraine – one of my best friends lives in Geneva, and I spent a very enjoyable few days in Kiev last year – it’s comfortably the least appetising of those five ties.

However, in the scheduler’s terms it falls on Monday evening and therefore means that the ´óÏó´«Ã½ and ITV record a 2-2 draw in terms of peak-time games in this phase.

As programme makers, I’m afraid we’d all infinitely rather work on either of the two tea-time games on Monday and Tuesday - Italy v Australia or Brazil v Ghana - even if the viewing figures may ultimately prove to be a little smaller because much of the potential audience won’t be at home.

As I’ve said previously, as editors and producers we’re not privy to any of these discussions, or fully aware of how they’re conducted. We will get on with making the best programme we can, and who knows, Shevchenko may fire home the winning penalty after the first 6-6 draw in World Cup history.

To be fair, the least prepossessing games sometimes lead to an enjoyable production. Ukraine v Tunisia yesterday was one of the very few dullish games we’ve shown out here, but because there wasn’t an enormous amount to analyse, and it was an afternoon show, we were able to run a colour piece in which Leonardo and Ian Wright tested the new ball and give Martin O’Neill time and space to expand on various subjects, which he did admirably as ever.

The whole show was appropriately low-key, good-natured and (I hope) enjoyable to watch. We can’t control the football, but we can package it to the best of our ability.

We’re all aware that it’s an absolute privilege to be working on something we would all be glued to even if we weren’t involved. I’ve watched pretty much every minute of every World Cup since 1974 and still have to pinch myself occasionally that I now do it for a living.

Even so, after 50 matches in 16 days, we are now three days away from a break in the action on Wednesday and Thursday, With any luck, we may find out by Wednesday which two quarter-finals we’re showing live, We’ll then have a luxury we haven’t had since the tournament began - a couple of days to prepare for our next show.