British network BBC came under attack again by its critics regarding its broadcasters for the latter's use of pundits who cannot understand English in their coverage of this year's World Cup games. Angry viewers have accused BBC and ITV of employing people who do not speak fluent English, which fueld broadening concerns about the company's coverage of the competition, the Telegraph reported.
The latest subjects of the complaints are former Brazil midfielder Juninho Paulista and Italian defender Fabio Cannavaro, of which viewers claimed that the two were incomprehensible. Moreover, the two allegedly appeared confused with their co-presenters' analyses of the games.
Paulista and Cannavaro, who have appeared on the World Cup programming for both channels got flak for their broadcaster performances.
One Twitter user wrote, "They should provide English speaking courses and tests for the pundits before allowing them on ITV or even BBC. Cannavaro is struggling."
Another had said, "Incredible defender, but Cannavaro sounds like he's put 'conversational english' on his CV and ITV took him at his word."
On Sunday, commentator Jonathan Pearce also received criticism for using a series of gaffes on-air less than 24 hours after his fellow BBC colleague Phil Neville was declared boring by viewers in his coverage of England's opener in the tournament.
Pearce was commenting about France's second goal in its match against Honduras, of which FIFA's GoalControl technology has declared "goal."
Pearce, after been given an explanation by co-presenter Martin Keown, said, "Oh my goodness me. They've changed their minds now. Does goal line technology work or doesn't it? Well which replay are we supposed to believe? This was supposed to be a flawless system... The whole goal line technology debate will flare up again because it was not good enough, was it? One moment we are seeing a goal given by the assistant referee, then the next thing we are seeing it's not over the line in the replay, and then we are seeing it is over the line on the second one."
BBC has since maintained the importance of Neville in its team to provide World Cup coverage. However, it has said that it has yet to decide on whom to appoint to provide commentary for England's next match.
