Live Premier League action
THE BBC is to screen live Premier League football action for the first time today.
The match between Bournemouth and Crystal Palace, which kicks off at 7.45pm, will be broadcast on BBC One. It is the first of four live top-flight matches which will be broadcast for free alongside Match of the Day highlights programmes.
Steve Wilson will commentate alongside former Tottenham star Jermaine Jenas. Yesterday Steve, 53, gave the Daily Express an insight into how the historic broadcast is likely to unfold. He said: “At the beginning of the week there was a real palpable sense of excitement about the Premier League coming back.
“It has happened through circumstances that nobody would want. Everybody involved in football would have preferred we had a normal season and games were played and broadcast in the normal scheme of things, but it is what it is and as a result we have these four games.
“I’m delighted to be asked to do the first of them because it’s great to be involved in what is a little bit of history for the BBC.
“Whatever happens, it’s going to be a memorable occasion.
“After watching the games on Wednesday one of the really powerful things for me was the players taking a knee at kick off.
“I would imagine that is something we are going to see at games right across the board this weekend.
“I think it underlines what we have seen over the last few weeks, the general very powerful mood among footballers, starting with
Jordan Henderson getting captains together to raise funds for NHS charities and then Marcus Rashford.
“Putting that moment in front of the largest possible audience is something that is very powerful and I’m very much looking forward to being part of that.
“I think the commentary is going to be much more difficult for a lot of reasons.
“One area is getting that inside track on what’s happening within a club. In terms of your weekly rolling prep for games, you would know exactly what the current injury situation is, who’s 100 per cent fit and who’s not.
“All those things are more difficult to establish now for a commentator.
“We have to observe social distancing. I’m doing the game with Jermaine Jenas and we won’t be standing next to each other.
“There’s a kind of dynamic between a commentator and co-commentator. A lot of it is little glances, a little nudge if you want to say something, almost like a sort of body language .That’s obviously not really going to happen when we are socially distanced.”