The World Cup and why knowing your audience is key

The football World Cup will attract thousands of casual fans that are not used to its lexicon

As the football World Cup approaches, the thought of 104 games featuring 48 teams across five weeks, will fill many people with dread and see them running for the hills and the (relatively) safe haven of Netflix, Amazon Prime etc. For football fans like me, it's time to plan when you might actually get some sleep. But the inbetweeners are those that will watch some of the games and who don't normally watch football as often.

When big sporting events come around, especially if there is home country or home player interest, the audience changes significantly. Alongside the regular viewers are these casuals, those joining the ride because it is a moment in time they want to enjoy too. We know audience figures grow and grow as England progress through tournaments. And with that growth, the percentage of those that are less familiar with the details and narratives also grows.

This is what presenters, commentators and pundits need to be reminded of before a tournament like the World Cup gets underway. There will be new viewers, unfamiliar with where certain players perform week-by-week but also not used to the often confusing lexicon of sport. The assumed knowledge and the language used can often exclude that new audience. All sports have unique languages and trying to get those too familiar with it to speak to a new audience is like training military personnel to speak normally in the media. Because they spend all their time using inside language and acronyms it is hard to adjust.

I have been watching football for 50 years but when pundits and presenters start talking about Number 9s and Number 10s, I am deeply confused. Mainly because shirt numbers stopped being used in the 1990s and instead players have squad numbers that bear no correlation to where they are on the pitch. A goalkeeper is not even guaranteed to be wearing No1. But I also don't really get the reference. Is Harry Kane a Number 9 or Number 10? It is natural to lean on inside language when you are covering a sport day-by-day but just explain it normally, especially when you have this new audience.

When broadcasting and talking to this fresh audience you need to remember that your job is explaining what is happening clearly. If you work regularly covering the Premier League, you can become too familiar with all the details. You need the same mindset to when people cover state events. Each year the service at The Cenotaph is explained as if it is the first time you have seen it. The commentary is always of the highest quality.

Assumed knowledge is the enemy of connecting to an audience. It alienates and frustrates people. Good presenters will remember that and call-out pundits and experts to explain what they are saying more clearly. Sadly with football, those presenters are few and far between. Even the brilliant Mark Chapman can slip into football-speak that confuses me. The reason for this is two-fold. Presenters get too close to the sport and pundits and start to suffer from Stockholm-syndrome and there is also a fear of looking stupid.

Good producers should work on this with their broadcast teams before the tournament. Tell them that because it is the World Cup, there are new viewers, unaware of the intricacies of Aston Villa's midfield or Bournemouth's pressing. Even the word pressing might need explaining, and do not get me started on low and high blocks. The key is not to treat your audience like idiots but to understand that some things cannot be assumed and might need clarity. Just because football is ubiquitous, it doesn't mean everyone understands all of its terminology. So keep it simple and remember the audience. It is not hard, we just need reminding of it all the time.