Intelligent football conversation? Surely not! (Revista De La Liga)

Member Name: Essexmumof2

Product:	Revista De La Liga
Date:	18/03/09 (183 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Top quality analysis and intellectual

Disadvantages: Bit too much focus on the elite of La Liga

I am a regular viewer of the weekly Revista de la Liga football programme on Sky Sports 1. This is basically a Spanish equivalent of Match of the Day, which most of you will be familiar with. Gary Lineker is replaced by Mark Bolton; Guillem Balague (in the studio) and Graham Hunter (usually joining via the phone or video link, but sometimes in the studio) act as Mark Lawrenson, Alan Hansen and/or Alan Shearer. And, obviously, rather than focusing on the English Premier League, the attention is centred on the Spanish top flight football division - La Liga.

The format of the programme is essentially Mark Bolton introducing the piece, regularly provoking conversation and the views of both Guillem Balague and Graham Hunter. Even when joining via call or video link, Hunter will spend some time engaging in the interesting debates and discussions. Where Revista de la Liga (Revista) is somewhat better, in my opinion, than Match of the Day (MOTD) is the intellectual discussions. MOTD will allow the pundits to focus on aspects of the match just viewed - the goals, the incidents, the defending, the good/bad form a team are in. Where Revista differs is that it will focus on these aspects but then also allow discussion around some more detailed aspect, and with very little "sitting on the fence" that we have become familiar with in British punditry! For example, following the resignation of Ramon Calderon, the now former Real Madrid president, back in January, Revista discussed the facts as to what had happened and what the future would hold, but Bolton also provoked Balague and Hunter into giving their in depth views on the presidential process. Balague was open in referring to it as not necessarily always being a fair democratic process. Hold on a minute, somebody providing a real opinion?! Not something we expect on MOTD, although Shearer is trying to break the mould.

Revista is on Sky Sports 1 on Tuesday evenings at 6.30pm, focusing on the previous weekend's La Liga action. It typically starts by showing the goals from the main games of the weekend, before a discussion of around 20mins on the key issues surrounding these. Following an advert break, the programme then switches to the goals from the games involving those sides chasing Champions' League and Europa League places (essentially those teams positioned 2nd - 7th in La Liga). Again, this will be followed by further discussion, and then a competition where viewers get the opportunity to usually win a signed football shirt or signed photo of a player.

The third part of the programme focuses on the bottom half of the table, again, showing the goals from the games but also going into a discussion around ongoing form, issues around the financial plight of a club, or managerial change. Again, the difference here from MOTD is that detailed analysis of aspects other than the actual goals just shown. This is the intellectual's football programme. The programme usually ends with a wrap up of the latest goalscoring charts and Guapa which is ultimately a 1-2min long montage sequence of skilful play from the weekend's games. This will either be goals, assists or general flambouance. All of this is overplayed by music and somebody shouting "Guapa" each time the said piece of skill occurs. This is the only irritating part of the programme and leaves viewers thinking "I just don't quite get this part"!! The entire programme lasts approximately 60mins including advert breaks.

Overall, I am a big fan of Revista. It provokes intelligent conversation and thoughts, and as a result of having watched this programme religiously this season I actually think that La Liga is more exciting than the Premier League. The downside would have to be the massive focus on Real Madrid and Barcelona, although essentially how else do you attract British viewers? Attracting viewers to a programme which headlines one of these massive clubs is more likely than advertising, say, mid-table sides such as Athletico Bilbao or Vallodolid. In addition, Barcelona and Real Madrid do occupy the top two in the table so focus here can be justified. Whilst MOTD seems to focus on Manchester United and Chelsea whatever their position in the Premier League, Revista did dedicate time to Valencia earlier in the season when they were romping away in top spot for the first 10 games or so.

In summary, a great programme. I think it is structured right, with thought-provoking conversation, hosted well by Mark Bolton, and with valuable opinions from Balague and Hunter. Well worth watching!

Summary: If you're a fan of all things football, you will thoroughly enjoy this