Dear Mr Thank you for contacting us about '5 Live Sport' broadcast on 8 January. We’re sorry if you were unhappy with Craig Burley’s commentary during the Chelsea v Portsmouth match. Craig is used as an expert summariser on '5 Live Sport' because of his credentials and expertise as a former player. He has strong views and while criticised Andreas Villas-Boas he also criticised Manchester United and Arsenal for recalling Paul Scholes and Thierry Henry. We acknowledge that many of our listeners won’t agree with Craig’s views, however we believe that they are valid and that he gives them without agenda at the same time as maintaining impartiality. Nevertheless, we appreciate how strongly you feel on this matter and we're guided by our audience feedback, so we’d like to assure you that your complaint has been registered on our audience log. This is an internal report of audience feedback that we compile on a daily basis and it’s made available to programme commissioners, channel executives and senior management. The audience logs are seen as important documents that can help shape decisions about future programming and content. Thanks once again for taking the time to contact us. Kind Regards BBC Complaints www.bbc.co.uk/complaints - good to know they took it seriously an gave me a response. Hopefully Craig is notified and doesn't make further comments similar to tthe ones he made! Be interesting to hear SW6's reply to his complaint too!
Check out the FA cup thread on here mate, said a lot of **** things plus offended the fans! Even when we were 4-0 he said it was flattering and gritting his teeth while talking the little bastard.
Nice one on contacting the beeb about him. I wasn't too pleased when I tuned in to the game to hear him commentating on another of our matches. I have enough of him running us down on ESPN. I thought he had a really bad grudge against us by the way he clearly seems to hate us. After hearing him on other games on ESPN I just think he hates everyone, and just seems to run everyone down for the 90 mins. On 5live didn't he say something about how he was talking to staff around Stamford Bridge and how they all gave him the impression everyone is anti-AVB? I remember thinking at the time he should have kept that to himself. I know Lawro and Alan Green sometimes like to have a moan, but at least they are passionate and give praise when it is due. It's a shame because I was always a fan of Craig's when he was here. I even remember defending him against "THAT BACKPASS" when I was at school.
If he does the same on ESPN I'll complain again! I have no idea why he's so bitter, his opinions on football are ****e and I have no idea how the cocky **** is still a pundit. Yes he also did say that anti-AVB thing, ridiculous. Saying our fans had 'put down their sandwiches' did it for me, angered me a lot. We paid the ****s wages for ****s sake . The pundits you mentioned are still dicks, but they're nowhere near as bad as Craig and I can actually tolerate them! I never minded Craig as a player, he wasn't the best but he wasn't the worst. Although, yes, that backpass was something to behold!
YOUR COMPLAINT: Complaint Summary: Craig Burley Full Complaint: Craig Burley has ruined my listening to football matches many times, but today was the last straw. I have never heard such biased and negative drivel pour out of a summarisers mouth in all the years I've listened to the station. It got to the point where I actually turned the radio off half way through the first half and miss the rest of the game than listen to him. Please have a word with him about his future conduct on air or better still don't utilise him. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The response: Exactly the same as Drogs.... Thanks for contacting us regarding BBC Radio 5 Live’s ‘5 Live Sport’. We understand you’re unhappy with Craig Burley’s contribution to the programme, as you find his punditry to be overly negative and biased. While we appreciate your concerns, it's in the nature of commentating and punditry that contributors are expected to provide their personal view on the action and events surrounding the matches they're watching. All we can expect of them is a fair assessment based on their knowledge and experience. Programme contributors like Craig Burley are appointed on the basis of their experience and knowledge, but judgements are often subjective and we would never expect everyone to agree with every choice we make. We do however employ different commentators, pundits and sports reporters to provide as wide a range of views as we can. That said, we appreciate you may continue to be unhappy, and so to that end, I’d like to assure you that I’ve registered your concerns on our audience log. This is a daily report of audience feedback that's made available to many BBC staff, including members of the BBC Executive Board, the ‘5 Live Sport’ production team and senior managers. The audience logs are seen as important documents that can help shape decisions about future programming and content. Thanks again for taking the time to contact us. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
That is what really pissed me off...I couldn't believe it. Ex-player with extended privilege to go behind the scenes at the club and then spouts that load of bollocks. I think he said something like "from the tea ladies upwards there are a lot of people who aren't sure about this guy". ****ing livid. Even if it's true don't go shouting about it...he should be banned the ****er. Still livid.
FFS . They don't seem to realise what he said about the fans and AVB was offensive! edit: Hope AVB heard it and hope he is never let on Chelsea TV again .
That is the good thing about AVB. If he did hear it I can imagine him being banned from the stadium lol.
After his latest, I don't think we'll ever be seeing him on Chelsea TV again and good riddance. I'm pretty positive a lot of the callers will want to have a word with him.
I wonder if there was any issues we didn't get to hear about when he was shown the door by Ruud Gullit? I reckon he's harbouring a certain malice over not getting games when Ruud was in his Player/ manager role!
Mate of mine complained to Setanta a few years ago when he covered our game at OT and said it was a victory for football when Man Utd scored an injury time winner. He was given Setanta half price for 6 months. They probably went bust 3 weeks later though knowing that Micky mouse company. Back to the topic though, he is a pain in the rear end. I love it how he crticises even the very best of players like he was bloody Diego Maradona.
