The ABC won plenty of plaudits in the past for its sympathetic and informed coverage of the W-League and women's soccer.
Sadly for the national broadcaster much of that goodwill appears to have been lost after its disastrous coverage of the Liverpool v Sydney friendly match in Sydney on Wednesday night.
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ABC mocked after cringe-worthy football coverage
The Sydney FC and Liverpool FC friendly was matched with an awkward pre-match show on ABC2, which has been widely ridiculed.
The ABC drew the ire of soccer fans up and down the country for the way it televised what, it must be admitted, was a pretty meaningless match, largely a hit and run exercise for the EPL side to grab a large chunk of Australian supporters' money and run.
Few people, least of all Liverpool – who only arrived in the country on the day of the game – appeared to be taking it seriously, but the TV company covering the fixture was at least expected by its audience to be better prepared.
That its performance was well short of the mark was made evident almost instantaneously on social media by supporters, who described it variously as a disgrace, embarrassing, cringeworthy – and a lot more besides. Former Socceroo and Fox Sports commentator Robbie Slater led the charge.
Football Federation Australia, which sanctioned the game, echoed the supporter base, taking to twitter on Thursday to say: "FFA is disappointed with some aspects of the ABC's broadcast of the Sydney FC v Liverpool FC match.
"Pre-game, half-time & post-game coverage wasn't to standard expected by FFA & football fans. We've made that point to ABC management."
Shown on ABC2, the pre-match, half-time and post-match segments were hosted by comedians Jules Schiller, Tegan Higginbotham and Steen Raskopoulos, who embarked on a series of skits including one that involved texting Harry Kewell.
![See of red: Liverpool fans sing before kick-off.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170526025200im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/c/i/x/6/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gwd7pe.png/1495716460886.jpg)
At half-time, they crossed live to comedian Aaron Chen, who conducted a car crash interview with Sky Blues fans which fell badly flat.
On Thursday the ABC stuck to its guns and pointed to the positives, arguing that it was trying to create something different to the regular pre and post-match analysis for a game of this type.
"While the game coverage and commentary was excellent, our decision to create a different offering for the pre-game, half-time and post-game coverage was not supported by all football fans and we will consider this feedback for any future sporting events," an ABC spokesperson said.
Quite how this fiasco might affect the ABC's chances of becoming an FTA broadcast partner for the FFA remains to be seen.
It wasn't only the broadcaster that missed a glorious opportunity to make its case as a standard bearer for the Australian game. Sydney FC, the all conquering A-League champions, also blew their chance too.
The Reds didn't have a training session before their fly-in, fly-out 90-minute pay day, but to those watching, it was Sydney FC who appeared to be clock-watching as they slumped to a lacklustre 3-0 loss.
It wasn't so much that they were outclassed, but that they showed little interest in testing Liverpool. Their mentality wasn't helped by the absence of several stars: Milos Ninkovic, Milos Dimitrijevic, Jordy Buijs and recently departed marquee Filip Holosko, whose holidays were pre-booked.
As the Mexican waves and paper planes suggested, there was no meaning to this contest. But in failing to challenge the Reds, Sydney FC missed a massive marketing free-kick. There has proven to be little legacy surrounding tours of major clubs, but if the Sky Blues had any chance of converting the tens of thousands of "Eurosnobs" at ANZ Stadium, they needed to at least display their credentials. Sadly they did not.
- with AAP