@adedawson:
the videos you posted were of commentators going crazy, not of pundits analyzing the game ... and I don't understand Chinese or Arabic, so I don't know what they were saying, only that they were excited ...
but anyway, what makes English a unique case has to do with the connectivity of the speakers of the language to the country where the language originates from ... this is best understood when comparing it to other languages ...
French
other than France, the francophone countries include Canada, a few countries in west and central Africa, a few islands off the east coast of the African continent, as well as French Guyana and Haiti ... apart from Canada (and of course France), the Francophone countries are economically poor ... a number of people from these countries seek to emigrate out of their country, and seek opportunities in the developed world to accrue wealth ... but they speak French ... so which country can they emigrate to that is nearby, and speaks French? France! the connection that the poorer Francophone countries have with France is very strong because of the emigration/immigration ... either the people want to move to France, or they already have family there ... so France is like a second country to them, and they thus have a vested interest in the prosperity of France, and/or constantly seek to associate themselves with France ...
Spanish
Latin America is where Spanish is spoken outside of Spain ... there are no major regions in other continents where Spanish is dominant ... there is certainly emigration of people from Latin America to Spain, but they have other options closer at hand, most notably the USA and Canada ... so the connection that Latin America feels to Spain is not really comparable to the connection that francophone countries in Africa feel to France ...
Other Languages
other colonial languages outside of English, French, and Spanish are not as widespread ... Portuguese is the only other colonial language I can think of that is spoken on more than two continents outside of Europe (Brazil from South America; Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde and one of the Guineas from Africa) ... and the affinity and cross-migration is strong within that small group ...
English
then we come to English ... the anglophone world spans several continents, and includes several economic powers ... from USA and Canada, through the British Isles, through large portions of Africa, and Asia, all the way to Australia and New Zealand ... this is a diverse group, and that is merely looking at the countries where English is an official language ... there are several other countries where English is commonplace as the second language, especially amongst the educated ... this is where the big difference is between English and the other languages ... English penetrates the most number of countries, and so unlike French and Portuguese, it does not imply a strong affinity to the language's country of origin ...
How all this affects commentary
the global French commentary feed has its main audience in francophone Africa ... but French commentators from France are very aware of the francophone audience from Africa who would be listening to them ... so if there is a match between France and a francophone nation from Africa, like happened with Senegal in 2002, they would ensure coverage of both sides of the story ...
Spanish-speaking Latin American countries are mad about football, and so for an event like the World Cup, they have local commentators covering the match ... unlike for the English language, there is no global Spanish language commentary feed because each of the big countries has its own coverage, while the smaller nations would depend on TV stations from bigger neighbouring nations for the commentary feed ... they do not need a global commentary feed with Spanish commentators from Spain ...
with Portuguese, Brazil are autonomous when it comes to coverage, as are Portugal; Angola, Mozambique, and Cape Verde depend on one of the two, which is fine because they would be supporting both nations ...
the English language, though, is different ... commentary as a profession is not lucrative enough outside of England to attract the top-level eloquent orators who are cognizant of the game; not when compared to how good the English commentators sound ... the guys who are try (in the MLS, in the A-League, in the PSL (South Africa), in the I-League (India), etc.) confirm that fact ... so the global English language feed is crucial ...
the global English commentary feed is the English language commentary feed for the English language coverage OUTSIDE of England ... English commentators from England (like Martin Tyler) are hired by one or two of the big name stations OUTSIDE England, and the commentary feed is sold to other stations outside of England (such as Supersport, who have the coverage rights for all of anglophone Africa) ... no subsidies or taxpayer money, etc. from the UK govt is involved because these are companies outside of the UK ... so is it unreasonable for me to expect the English commentators to not try to spin things towards English football and the England national team when they are working during the tournament for non-English companies, being paid by non-Englishmen, and commentating for the anglophone world outside of England (from USA, to Canada, to Africa, to Asia, to Oceania) who are not supporting England?
the videos you posted were of commentators going crazy, not of pundits analyzing the game ... and I don't understand Chinese or Arabic, so I don't know what they were saying, only that they were excited ...
but anyway, what makes English a unique case has to do with the connectivity of the speakers of the language to the country where the language originates from ... this is best understood when comparing it to other languages ...
French
other than France, the francophone countries include Canada, a few countries in west and central Africa, a few islands off the east coast of the African continent, as well as French Guyana and Haiti ... apart from Canada (and of course France), the Francophone countries are economically poor ... a number of people from these countries seek to emigrate out of their country, and seek opportunities in the developed world to accrue wealth ... but they speak French ... so which country can they emigrate to that is nearby, and speaks French? France! the connection that the poorer Francophone countries have with France is very strong because of the emigration/immigration ... either the people want to move to France, or they already have family there ... so France is like a second country to them, and they thus have a vested interest in the prosperity of France, and/or constantly seek to associate themselves with France ...
Spanish
Latin America is where Spanish is spoken outside of Spain ... there are no major regions in other continents where Spanish is dominant ... there is certainly emigration of people from Latin America to Spain, but they have other options closer at hand, most notably the USA and Canada ... so the connection that Latin America feels to Spain is not really comparable to the connection that francophone countries in Africa feel to France ...
Other Languages
other colonial languages outside of English, French, and Spanish are not as widespread ... Portuguese is the only other colonial language I can think of that is spoken on more than two continents outside of Europe (Brazil from South America; Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde and one of the Guineas from Africa) ... and the affinity and cross-migration is strong within that small group ...
English
then we come to English ... the anglophone world spans several continents, and includes several economic powers ... from USA and Canada, through the British Isles, through large portions of Africa, and Asia, all the way to Australia and New Zealand ... this is a diverse group, and that is merely looking at the countries where English is an official language ... there are several other countries where English is commonplace as the second language, especially amongst the educated ... this is where the big difference is between English and the other languages ... English penetrates the most number of countries, and so unlike French and Portuguese, it does not imply a strong affinity to the language's country of origin ...
How all this affects commentary
the global French commentary feed has its main audience in francophone Africa ... but French commentators from France are very aware of the francophone audience from Africa who would be listening to them ... so if there is a match between France and a francophone nation from Africa, like happened with Senegal in 2002, they would ensure coverage of both sides of the story ...
Spanish-speaking Latin American countries are mad about football, and so for an event like the World Cup, they have local commentators covering the match ... unlike for the English language, there is no global Spanish language commentary feed because each of the big countries has its own coverage, while the smaller nations would depend on TV stations from bigger neighbouring nations for the commentary feed ... they do not need a global commentary feed with Spanish commentators from Spain ...
with Portuguese, Brazil are autonomous when it comes to coverage, as are Portugal; Angola, Mozambique, and Cape Verde depend on one of the two, which is fine because they would be supporting both nations ...
the English language, though, is different ... commentary as a profession is not lucrative enough outside of England to attract the top-level eloquent orators who are cognizant of the game; not when compared to how good the English commentators sound ... the guys who are try (in the MLS, in the A-League, in the PSL (South Africa), in the I-League (India), etc.) confirm that fact ... so the global English language feed is crucial ...
the global English commentary feed is the English language commentary feed for the English language coverage OUTSIDE of England ... English commentators from England (like Martin Tyler) are hired by one or two of the big name stations OUTSIDE England, and the commentary feed is sold to other stations outside of England (such as Supersport, who have the coverage rights for all of anglophone Africa) ... no subsidies or taxpayer money, etc. from the UK govt is involved because these are companies outside of the UK ... so is it unreasonable for me to expect the English commentators to not try to spin things towards English football and the England national team when they are working during the tournament for non-English companies, being paid by non-Englishmen, and commentating for the anglophone world outside of England (from USA, to Canada, to Africa, to Asia, to Oceania) who are not supporting England?
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