If there's one thing that did not rile up the Brits in the national team's defense against Italy in its first match at the 2014 World Cup, it would be Phil Neville's commentary for BBC. The former England player was the topic of the moment back in UK soil and on social media despite the national team's loss against Italians at a 2-1 score, Yahoo Sports said.
Daily Mail said a BBC spokeswoman said that it had received a total of 445 complaints regarding Neville's commentary during the match. Despite Neville's performance, the Brits had pulled great numbers for BBC, clocking in at a peak audience of 15.6 million viewers.
Fellow broadcaster Danny Baker said, "Phil Neville has acknowledged he wasn't great during England commentary. But what were the BBC doing giving him THAT game to ‘learn his craft'?"
Although several had stood up to the sports commentator, who had also gotten flak for leading David Moyes' team at Manchester United this season, the police had also chimed in their thoughts about Neville.
The official Twitter account of the South Warwickshire police had posted a couple of tweets about their supposed plan to use Neville's otherwise boring commentary about the World Cup match to be able to keep the local residents sedated.
A tweet on June 14 read, "Will be playing recordings of Phil Neville all night to keep the streets all calm and sleepy. Remember respect residents #KnowYourLimit"
Another tweet posted on the same day also read, "At least we know Phil Neville won't stir the crowds in the pubs into a frenzy. Drink sensibly. #WorldCup2014 #KnowYourLimit #EnglandvsItaly."
Whether the local police's plan would come into fruition, Neville took all of the reviews in good humor, and shared his sentiments on it also on Twitter the following day.
"1st live co-comm last night-sometimes u have to take the criticism - it will only make me better- thanks for the feedback(ahhahaha)!," Neville tweeted.
