TV Channel: BBC Three
Programme Name: Germany vs Republic of Ireland

Transmission Date: 02/09/06

I was disappointed when I switched over to the above football match to see the latest score information in the top left of the screen display "Germany 0 Ireland 0".

However it wasn't the lack of goals so-far that had attracted my attention but the inaccurate representation of one of the teams playing as "Ireland". There has not been a football team called Ireland for many decades now, and the original Ireland team was the Irish FA one based in Belfast, not the one run by the FAI.

It's bad enough to hear this team repeatedly referred to informally as Ireland during commentary, but when showing statistics etc the correct name of the team should really be used. In this particular instance, misrepresenting the name of the team causes no small amount of offence to those of us in Ireland who follow (for our sins) the other team on the island.

This sort of mistake is common on Sky, but one would generally expect higher standards from the BBC.

I'm pleased to see BBC Three covering live sport and hope this trend continues, however please try harder with the presentation of the match in future.