Once again, Channel 4 are fucking me off...

This coming weekend is a real treat for football fans - as long as you're English.
Channel 4 have once again got me chucking the remote at the screen with their best ever England team programme.
The show, which allows viewers to vote on their favorite English football players of all time seems like a great idea but for two things.
Firstly, Channel 4 is supposed to be a NATIONAL broadcasters. It might be news to them but viewers from Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland also tune in and expect to see something of interest to everyone, not just English viewers.
English people always seem to have a hard time figuring out why they are hated by almost everyone else in the world. It's because English based broadcasters act as if no one else matters. Then there is that bizarre sense of entitlement that pervades the English media (Anyone get the idea that England have already won Euro 2004 ? You will when it starts, believe me) and the always distasteful carnival of borderline fascist English patriotic fervor the media leads whenever major sporting events loom large.
It's a shame. Most English people I know aren't like that at all, even if they do get a bit over excited when the footie's on.
That this programme (Remember? Aye?) excludes anyone who doesn't give a toss about England (and there are quite a few of us) seems to stem from this typically boorish English trait of simply forgetting the rest of Britain exists , or more accurately that the rest of us don't matter as much as they do.

The second reason this is a lot of pish is more simple - a best British team ever would have been much more interesting as a programme.
What about this for example:

Pat Jennings (GK) N. Ireland
Bobby Moore (DF) England
Danny Blanchflower (DF) N. Ireland
Wille Miller (DF) Scotland
Ryan Giggs (MD) Wales
Bobby Charlton (MD) England
Jim Baxter (MD) Scotland
Jimmy Johnstone (MD) Scotland
John Charles (FW) Wales
Jimmy Greaves (FW) England
Denis Law (FW) Scotland

Ok, a bit Scotland heavy but therein would be the fun of the show, everyone has their favorites and everyone leans towards their own guys.

Once again, Channel Four have missed an opportunity and instead have elected to piss loyal viewers off. If I had any energy left from waiting up for NYPD Blue, I would have a good mind to complain.