English Premier League giants Liverpool FC made their long-awaited return to Sydney on Wednesday night, playing reigning A-League champions Sydney FC in an exhibition match.
Thanks for the support Australian Reds!! 👏🔴🇦🇺⚽ #sydney #YNWA
Sydney FC's 2016/17 season is one of the most successful seasons ever achieved by an A League team, but that didn't stop Liverpool – who secured a position in next season's European Champion's League last week – from easily defeating them 3-0.
While the match was a spectacle and included 70,000 fans blasting out Liverpool's iconic anthem "You'll Never Walk Alone", a lot of the attention from those not at the game was on the coverage of the match from ABC2.
You'll Never Walk Alone. 🇦🇺
Presenters Jules Schiller, Tegan Higginbotham and Steen Raskopoulos tried as best they could, but people were not buying ABC2's coverage of the event.
There are no words to describe how bad this is. #livsyd
This ABC pre match coverage #LIVSYD
But it was at half-time, when sideline presenter and comedian Aaron Chen attempted to interview some local supporters, that things really got weird.
tuned in to #LIVSYD and this was the first thing I saw. what an utter, complete disaster this @abc2 coverage is. sw… https://t.co/4ng7roZXHM
The segment, in which Chen accidentally talked about "possessions" instead of "positions", had hundreds of people at home scratching their heads, unable to figure out if Chen was deliberately putting on his awkward persona or if ABC2 had actually rolled out a completely unprepared comedian to cover the sideline.
"Sooo you guys organised the hosts right?" ABC2: .... #livsyd #ABC2
ABC trying to be sporty #LIVSYD
Everyone after that @ABC2 half-time show... #LIVSYD
In the end, it did seem like Chen knew exactly what he was doing. The comedian continued his coverage on Twitter, opening up his DMs to the public and tweeting out some of the messages he had received on Facebook.
Seems Chen saw his opportunity to cement himself as an artist and did just that.
Sorry I make groundbreaking art
@ABC2 This is one of the main soccer men for liverpod. Good luck winning a goal. Fat chance go the blue team.
Football Federation Australia responded to ABC2's coverage of the game on Thursday morning via the A League's official Twitter account. It said the FFA was disappointed with "some aspects" of the broadcast.
Like many fans, FFA is disappointed with some aspects of the ABC’s broadcast of the Sydney FC v Liverpool FC match last night. (1/2)
Pre-game, half-time & post-game coverage wasn't to standard expected by @FFA & football fans. We've made that point to ABC management. (2/2)