They just seem to show the flags. What use is that?

Have people got to google the team shirts themselves?

If you come in late, it would be nice to see at a glance which teams were which, like you can with BBC matches...surely it is pretty basic stuff.

Is it too much trouble for them to find out, which shirts they will wear?

Really annoying.

Maybe they think the people watching are football fans and will know who is wearing what colour or that listening to the commentary will make it obvious pretty quickly?

if the BBC can do it, I think ITV should too....why put up the countrys' flags? What use is that?

You're not much of a football fan, are you?

Even when I am unfamiliar with both teams, I can usually figure it out within about... 10 seconds max.

Mind you, holland v spain was confusing

It was if you didn't recognise any of the players or listen to the commentary.

I think the OP makes a fair point - just because you don't have an encyclopædic knowledge of all the strips doesn't mean you're not entitled to enjoy the footie. And it's not a lot to ask, is it?

How would it stop you enjoying the game?

Yeah, it should be obvious which team is which no matter what system of graphics they use.

Mudbox, Switzerland are playing in red and Ecuador in Blue.

I'll give that the answer it deserves.

You mean you'll avoid the question.

How do people cope with cricket or Wimbledon?

I'm with Mudbox.
When there was raucous applause following a goal in the opener by Neymar da Silva Santos followed by samba celebrations......I wondered if a popular Croatia team was more multicultural than I thought.

Switzerland are also the team whose players look...errr.. Swiss.

What does a Swiss person look like?

I quite like ITVs coverage, but there is no doubt it's very laddish and football focussed.

The lack of shirt colours is a small thing but a symptom of a lack of consideration to the casual viewer. Strange since about 66% of it's audience wouldn't normally watch football.

I can't see two-thirds of the audience of a World Cup group game being people who don't watch football.

So, should the coverage be dumbed down to accommodate the casual viewer, then? This would irritate the regular football viewer who would then feel as if they are being patronised.

IMHO that is the reason for a commentary to inform the viewer of information they need/want to know. I do not understand why there needs to be a permanent display of the score as it is not rapidly changing. The Sony sponsored-scoreboard every 10 minutes is adequate. And if that is not enough, the commentary can remind the viewer of the score and the country colours. Then there is no need for the large and intrusive score in the 4:3 safe area.

I hate the colour-coded BBC scorecard. Not 2 colours work together and makes the scoreboard unreadable (eg: Bradford Bulls in rugby league). The colour-coded BBC scorecard in the 6 Nations rugby is laughable. When Wales plays England, BBC has red background with white font against white background with red font. So does the rugby jersey match the background colour or the font colour?

Having the score and time on-screen is a necessity. There's no reason to have it as a regular update or task the commentator to remind us every few minutes.

they never used to show either. They still don't show the time in highlights packages.

You often get minute of play graphic alerts on match of the day!

I hate ITV's list of the players in each team. Very scruffy looking