"Why should More 4 News cover the World Cup finals?" asked a colleague. "Our viewers will be sick of football, and anyone who cares is watching the match on the other side!" The words of one colleague. But I happen to think there's an appetite out there for intelligent world cup coverage with an international focus, writes Mick Hodgkin.
A lot of you showed your interest with your response to our England World Cup songs feature (see Rags Martel's piece below). But not everyone will watch all the matches. Some will follow every kick of every England game, while others will be crying out for news of Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago or Iran, and many, we believe, will want to hear about what the cup means to the rest of the world.
Our roving (unaccredited) correspondent in Germany, Inigo Gilmore, is better known for his More4 News and Channel 4 News reports on things like political repression in Ethiopia and the effects of the economic squeeze on Gaza. But we're letting the repressed football fan in Inigo loose on the World Cup.
His first report finds a surprise side to the Iranian fans, some of whom turned up for the Mexico match waving Israeli flags to show their opposition to President Ahmedinejad's comments on the Holocaust. That didn't go down well with some of their compatriots, as you can imagine.
And we want to get away from viewing everything through a red and white nylon filter to see how the matches, the war of words and the fans' behaviour is viewed in other participating countries.
Not to say I won't be cheering on Beckham and the lads myself of course - personal loyalty aside, I pulled England in the newsroom sweepstake!
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