ITV’s FA Cup shambles: Rude songs and naked men

Yesterday marked one of the highlights of the football calendar in England, as the FA Cup second round drew to a close and the third round draw, when the big boys enter the hat, was made.

The FA Cup affords the British broadcaster ITV a rare opportunity to delve into the world of club football, a domain usually dominated by Sky, however with all eyes watching the terrestrial broadcaster allowed two controversial incidents to be shown on the telly.

The first incident arrived during the Histon-Leeds match on Sunday. Histon, a non-league outfit, caused one of the major upsets of the Cup by knocking out the 1972 Cup winners, and during the match the ITV microphones managed to pick up a sweary song which the Leeds fans were directing to the match commentators.

A group in the crowd were heard chanting loudly “ITV are f****** s***” during live the coverage, with reports suggesting that some Leeds fans leaned over the hoardings at the side of the pitch and removed a microphone into the crowd.

The incident can be seen here.

After the match the draw was made live on TV, at which point a second embarrassing incident was broadcast by ITV. After Histon were paired up with Swansea, the footage panned back to the Histon dressing room where millions of viewers saw a player standing buck naked while getting changed.

According to The Sun, a viewer was quoted as saying: “I couldn’t believe it. When Histon’s name was pulled out of the hat they went live to see the players’ reaction to the third-round draw. One was stood there with absolutely nothing on — it was hilarious. Not at all what you expect to see on telly on a Sunday afternoon.”