The World Game
| The World Game | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Sports |
| Presented by | Les Murray |
| Country of origin | Australia |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 13 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | SBS One SBS Two |
| Release | 2001 – present |
The World Game is an Australian football television show broadcast on SBS. The show analytically reviews and previews Australian and international football and football issues. It is currently hosted by Les Murray.
Presenters
Current presenters
Regular appearances
- Craig Foster
- David Zdrilic
- David Basheer
- Mariana Rudan
- Vitor Sobral
Former presenters
- Scott McIntyre (since sacked by SBS)
- Andrew Orsatti (since moved to ESPN)
- Simon Hill (since moved to Fox Sports)
- Tim Vickery
- Liz Deep-Jones
- Mieke Buchan
- Stephanie Brantz
- Francis Awaritefe
- Anthony Peridis
- Tony Palumbo
- Rale Rasic
- Branko Culina
- Paul Okon
- Željko Kalac
- Ned Zelić
Format
From August 2013, a half-hour weekly Monday night show has been aired on SBS One. The show focuses on a wide coverage of Australian and international football events from the week prior.
History
The show first aired in 2001, and started out as a live 6-hour show, airing on Sunday afternoons. It was then shortened to a 3-hour show a few years later.
From 2 August 2010, the show was moved to Monday nights, on SBS Two live at 9.30pm AEST, and is repeated soon after on SBS One at 11.00pm AEST. This allowed for wider coverage of the football events from the weekend prior. The show was also shortened to one-hour episodes.
Tony Palumbo, a seasoned journalist with the Italian migrant press in Australia, assists in providing some insights on major European leagues, primarily the English Premier League and Italian Serie A. Some footage is provided from Spain's La Liga, France's Ligue 1, Scotland's Scottish Premier League, South America's Copa Libertadores and Germany's Bundesliga. UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup, other cup games and internationals (European Championship) also get game footage; mainly the Champions League. Former Sydney FC coach Branko Culina is a regular contributor on discussion relating to Australian football. On 1 November 2012 SBS bought the rights to show one live A-League game per week, with the remainder going to pay TV provider Fox Sports. They will also broadcast the Socceroos' World Cup qualifiers on one-hour delay with Fox Sports showing them live.[1] The show is no longer broadcast, since October 2014. No reason or comment has been provided by SBS for the show's termination.
Special editions
The World Game team responsible for the weekly regular show present major football events including the FIFA Club World Cup, FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, UEFA European Football Championship, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and major European Cup finals including The FA Cup, DFB Pokal and Copa del Rey. A pre-match preview, half time and post-match review is typically given by the various presenters.
In other media
Website
The World Game website is a popular football news website run as an adjunct to the TV program. It used to include a forum called The World Game Forum, which has since ceased activity. Commonly referred to by the abbreviation TWGF, the forum was one of the more popular football forums in Australia. It had over 18,000 members, who have contributed to over 800,000 articles.[2] It was first established in July 2002.
Podcast
The World Game Podcast started 6 June 2011, with Scott McIntyre, David Zdrilic and Sebastian Hassett hosting. The podcast sees a variety of guests talk the week in Australian and international football.
App
The World Game app, available from the iTunes Store, was SBS’s first mobile application. It received more than 25,000 downloads in its first week of release. The app provides a live score and result service with the addition of video highlights, news and content from The World Game team.[3]
Awards
In 2008, the program was nominated for a Logie Award in the 'Most Popular Sports Program' award category. It lost out to The AFL Footy Show.
See also
References
- ^ "TV deal great fillip for code". www.theage.com.au. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
- ^ www.theworldgame.com.au :: Index
- ^ "TWG iPhone app keeps you in touch". theworldgame.sbs.com.au. Retrieved 5 March 2013.
External links
- Special Broadcasting Service shows
- Association football television series
- 2001 Australian television series debuts
- 2000s Australian television series
- 2010s Australian television series
- English-language television programming
- Australian sports television series
- SBS Sport
- A-League on television
- Premier League on television