Phil Neville apologises for low-key World Cup commentary debut

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jun/16/phil-neville-apologises-world-cup-commentary

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He was never perhaps the most exuberant footballer, but now Phil Neville has apologised for his lack of charisma off the pitch, admitting he may have helped BBC viewers get off to sleep during England's crunch World Cup opener against Italy.

The former Manchester United and Everton star, whose elder brother Gary has forged a successful career as soccer pundit while on England's coaching staff, got off to a far less auspicious start as co-commentator and analyst. His debut was regarded as so boring that he sparked hundreds of complaints to the broadcaster as well as Twitter protests over the weekend.

Neville, for whom the sportswriter's descriptions of a player as "honest" or "no-nonsense" might have been coined, showed the same virtues in response to criticism that he conveyed no emotion and had a monotone style.

Neville told Radio 5 Live he had learned that "co-commentary is harder than what I thought it was going to be", adding that "I will get better – it was my first live gig and I'm just glad I helped everyone get to sleep back home!"

After the match, South Warwickshire police tweeted it would be "playing recordings of Phil Neville all night to keep the streets all calm and sleepy". Other viewers joked that the England physiotherapist Gary Lewin – stretchered off after injuring his ankle – had actually "fallen into a coma" while listening to Neville.

Broadcaster and football fanatic Danny Baker parodied the BBC's instructions to Neville: "We've an idea tonight's match could get quite heated. So we want you to suck all the life out of it."He added: "And the BBC have just made one change for the second half. They've taken off Phil Neville and brought on a speak-your-weight machine."

Neville responded to the Twitter criticism: "1st live co-comm last night – sometimes u have to take the criticism – it will only make me better. Thanks for the feedback (ahhahaha)!"

Baker, who works for BBC rival BT Sport, tweeted on Monday: "Phil Neville has acknowledged he wasn't that great during England commentary. But what were the BBC doing giving him THAT game to 'learn his craft'."

A BBC spokeswoman said there were 445 complaints after Saturday night's game, which had a peak audience of 15.6m. Neville, who had received broadcasting training, was "an important, well respected member of our team" and would "continue to play a key role throughout the tournament".

Television viewers planning to watch England play Uruguay live on Thursday will not be able to blame Neville for making them soporofic. This match is being screened by ITV and starts at 8pm UK time, rather than the 11pm start for the Italy game.

BBC will show the best bits later and Neville made clear he intended to learn from his mistakes. "In terms of the content I got out, I thought [it] was quite good. The feedback is that I need to show a bit more excitement, so I think you'll see that more on Thursday night in the highlights show."