If you check social media after every big Premier League or UEFA Champions League game on Sky Sports or BT Sport, you are sure to read the same comments over and over again - fans complaining that their team is treated unfairly by on-screen pundits and analysts.
Fans will lambast these pundits for waxing lyrical about the teams they used to play for, while denigrating the opposition and gloating at the missteps of their rivals.
With this in mind, several high-profile modern day pundits have made a concerted effort to appear as impartial and unbiased as humanly possible, to a fault at times. That's where you sometimes see the opposite phenomenon - pundits overcompensating with their negativity towards their former clubs. Roy Keane springs to mind.
The likes of Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher have garnered respect from some quarters for their perceived lack of bias towards their beloved Manchester United and Liverpool. Although they wear their fandom on their sleeves generally, when working as co-commentators or pundits, they have developed reputations for being able to put that to one side and be professional and objective.
Nonetheless, there is still always a sneaking suspicion among fans that biases are there, and one of the main problems driving this perception is the sheer number of ex-pros and ex-coaches intrinsically linked to certain clubs who appear on our screens every week, while other clubs and fans feel under-represented.
What are the facts as far as football TV bias?
We decided to take a closer look to find out just how big a problem is representation in terms of clubs at the top level of football broadcasting.
We analysed the staff lists of the two biggest sports networks in the UK, Sky Sports and BT Sport, to find out how many of their pundits and co-commentators are affiliated with certain teams.
The study focused only on co-comms and pundits. There are always the same accusations of bias thrown at lead commentators, presenters and journalists, but that is usually baseless nonsense, and there is usually little evidence to back it up.
Therefore, we focused solely on ex-players and ex-coaches, and we boiled down their pre-media careers to the one team they are most affiliated with, usually the one they spent the most time playing for or coaching.
We only covered regular pundits - members of the organisation's respective staff rosters on their websites - so occasional pundits and guests are not included in this analysis.
BT Sport - a home for Spurs fans
Those who reguarly watch football on TV in the UK will feel that almost every broadcast has to feature a Manchester United legend. This is often attributed to the idea that almost everyone in the industry supports United. Cynicism aside, it's little wonder that we are now seeing our screens flooded with ex-United players, given what those players achieved during the Sir Alex Ferguson era. We will surely see something similar when the Manchester City players of this generation retire.
However, it may surprise some to learn that the team most represented on BT Sport is actually Tottenham Hotspur. Jermaine Jenas, Glenn Hoddle and Harry Redknapp may all have connections to other teams but fundamentally their careers are defined by their respective stints either as player or coach at Spurs. They are seen by the eyes of the public, quite justifiably, as Spurs fans.
Then there's Peter Crouch, who despite being quite a journeyman and spending the longest spell of his career at Stoke City, could be forgiven for having, at the very least, a soft spot for Spurs.
BT Sport has its share of United, and Liverpool, pundits, and a decent mix of representation of other clubs but no club is better represented on their airwaves than Tottenham Hotspur.
Sky Sports - Liverpool vs Man United
Alongside a general disdain for the constant bombardment of ex-pros from United among fans, an equal or perhaps larger hatred is often seen online for the Liverpool contigent. The same old debates between the exact same people every week do seem to be tiring out a lot of fans, especially those in the younger generation.
No place is this problem more prevalent than on Sky Sports television. Gary Neville and Roy Keane battling against Jamie Carragher and Graeme Souness has become an almost constant white noise in the background of every big Premier League game each week. Throw Jamie Redknapp into the mix, as they often do, and practically all of their big-game, go-to voices are United or Liverpool.
The thing is... the Sky Sports roster of pundits and co-commentators is actually a lot more diverse than it would appear at first glance, with several "smaller" Premier League and Scottish clubs represented by experts.
The problem appears to be the booking. The same old Liverpool experts, of which there are officially technically only three, making them the largest contingent on the roster, having the same old arguments with the United ex-pros has given the wrong impression of a network which does actually boast quite a variety of voices from the game.
Does football punditry bias exist?
We are all people and we all have our biases. It's impossible to imagine some of these pundits spending decades linked to a club and not secretly rooting for them. As long as pundits do their jobs and stay as neutral as possible in their coverage, the public will respect that.
Ultimately, the problems arise when too many voices are heard which are affiliated with a certain camp. This does a lot more to bolster the image among fans that one network is basically a fan channel for a certain club, and another is rooting against the club they support in particular.
The individuals themselves usually know better than to outwardly support the team they love on the air. The networks, on the other hand, might need to consider mixing things up a little bit, as the United and Liverpool duopoly which dominates every weekend's Premier League coverage starts to grate on some.
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