What a mess the BBC's 'Sports' personality of the Year' programme seems to have been.
I haven't watched this once unmissable offering for a few years, principally because it seems to have become a 'glammed-up' show rather than any sort of serious review of the year's sporting activities, but this year's effort appears to have come close to hitting rock bottom.
A politically correct short list for the nominations, a huge drop in voting numbers, clear influence from certain voting blocs and farcical technical problems. The odds-on favourite to win, Anthony Joshua, didn't even make the top three and the actual winner, Mo Farah, considered his chances so slight that he didn't bother to attend the event other than via a dodgy video-link.
A few years ago, this was a genuine chance to see the nation's sporting superstars but now it is no more than the BBC parading its collection of former competitors (as hosts) and making a noise about the few sports that it still covers. When the short list of nominations for the main prize include representatives from taekwondo, speed skating, women's cricket and superbike racing, of whom most of the viewing audience have never heard, there is clearly something wrong. At 540,000, the number of votes cast was almost a quarter of a million less than for last year and was merely one third of the 1.5 million that were cast 5 years ago; while viewers still seem to be watching, they obviously aren't much enamoured by what's on offer.
Was Mo Farah really the right choice given his opposition ? Surely Anthony Joshua, Lewis Hamilton or Adam Peaty had superior claims and Chris Froome certainly would have had but for the recently raised questions about his use of anti-asthma drugs. Even Harry Kane, whose exploits have seen him emerge as England's best striker since Alan Shearer, had at least as good a claim as Farah and yet he polled only a miserable 18,000 votes.
Runner up Jonathan Rea, a performer unknown outside of the world of superbike racing, was buoyed up by organised voting amongst devotees of that sport and one suspects that something similar happened in respect of Jonnie Peacock, whose achievements will also have passed by the majority of the population. Given that the BBC brands its award as 'Sport' Personality', one has to wonder how people who are virtually unknown can possibly emerge as serious contenders. It is, of course, all down to the Beebs fanatical pursuit of equality and diversity, rather than to any desire to identify a genuine and nationally known sporting personality.
Having been in the schedules since 1954, for many years being essential viewing for all sports' enthusiasts, this 'show' has surely now run its course. Cancel it and bury it, before this farce becomes nothing other than a national embarrassment.
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