Photo: Bildbyrån
Several major Swedish news channels broadcast Sven-Göran Eriksson’s funeral live on Friday.
SVT, on the other hand, chose not to do so – a decision that was criticized by people.
“Why doesn’t SVT broadcast Direkt?”, asks a thoughtful reader in the channel’s live chat.
During Friday, the legendary football coach was buried Sven-Göran Eriksson in Fryksände church in Torsby, where he grew up. On site were, among other things David Beckham, Glenn Hysen, Tommy Söderberg, Thor Grip and several of football’s big names.
SVT did not broadcast the funeral
“Svennis” died on August 26 due to pancreatic cancer. He lived to be 76 years old. His funeral was of course of great public interest and in addition to the fact that 600 people gathered in the church and that Torsby residents could follow the ceremony on a large screen outside, several of Sweden’s major news broadcasters broadcast live on the spot.
TV4, Aftonbladet, Expressen, DN and the local newspaper VF all broadcast the funeral. But something that surprised many was that Sweden’s Television actively opted out of the possibility of conveying the moving images to its viewers. Instead they only had a live chat on their sports site.
“Why doesn’t SVT broadcast Direkt???”, writes one of many thoughtful readers in the channel’s live chat.
The news director’s response after the criticism
The decision was particularly strange considering that instead of showing the funeral, like its competitors, the channel chose to broadcast reruns of “Hemmagympa med Sofia”, “Strömsö” and “Sverige!”.
When the question was asked in the SVT Sports chat, the public service channel chose to respond to the criticism. It certainly seems like they are now regretting their decision.
READ MORE: “Svenni’s” own heartbreaking words about when the doctors discovered the cancer give everyone a real lump in the throat: “Got a damn anxiety”
“We thought that we could do a great coverage with three teams on site. But maybe we should have sent too,” writes Johanna Bäckström LernebySVT Sports’ news manager, in a chat on his own website.
Of course you can think that SVT should broadcast “Svenni’s” funeral. He is still one of our biggest sporting profiles.
What do you think about this? Feel free to write a comment and share your opinion.
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