Soccer telecasts miss the spot

I always try to watch soccer telecasts from foreign TV stations. Some people have accused me of being unpatriotic, but I do it because I was often disappointed by the lack of professionalism of all the TV stations in this country.

My disappointment does not center on the 90-minute match, but the atmosphere before and after its completion. Our TV stations are apparently insensitive toward the atmosphere of drama in real life.

I have had my share of bitter experiences when watching final matches among European clubs. In 1995, the coverage of the Winners Cup final between Real Zaragosa and Arsenal ended after the referee had blown his whistle. I did not have the chance to see Nayim and friends join in the procession to receive the cup. A similar experience happened at the UEFA Cup final in 1997 between Inter Milan and Schalke 04 and the Champions final of the same year when Dortmund defeated Juventus.

In all three telecasts the TV stations did not give the opportunity to their viewers to watch the explosion of atmosphere of winning and losing, the happiness and the sorrow of the players. The coverage cut everything short. Instead, we got the advertisements of the sponsors and the analyses of people too hastily qualified as experts. Furthermore, viewers may remember the disappointment we got in the first minute of the direct telecast of the FA Cup last year -- when Roberto di Matteo put the ball into the Middlesborough net -- or the time when the national anthems of Denmark and Germany were played before the 1992 European Cup final.

Now I can only hope that all those inadvertencies will not be repeated in the coverage of the World Cup 1998 promised loudly for months to the public.

SURYA ASLIM

Jatinangor, West Java