Dear Sir,
I read with interest the nominations for the BBC Sports Personality of the year show, which is to be broadcast from the Greater Manchester region later this year. As always, there are a number of differing views on who should have been included on the shortlist provided by the BBC. Spending some time looking through the nominations of the "great and good" expert journalists, ad a Manchester resident, I was dismayed to view the list provided by your publication. The Manchester Evening News serves a region which is famous for its love of sport, and is a home to a huge variety of sports, and yet you managed to only represent 4 sports in your list of 10 nominations. Despite the hosting of a huge variety of sports; Manchester the national centres for squash and cycling, and Salford having regularly hosted World class triathlon to name just a few, you managed to ignore all sports apart from golf, cricket, football and a token swimmer... More worryingly, it appears that you haven't quite understood that this award traditionally goes to a British sportsperson, there being an Overseas Personality also awarded.
Leaving aside the nationality issue, the nomination of 4 footballers from the 2 Manchester teams, and 2 cricketers from Lancashire, does smack of localism, which as the BBC spotlight turns onto the Greater Manchester area, is surely something that should be avoided, when for years, the London centric focus of the mass media has been harshly criticised by many people outside.
I would be hugely interested to know how you came up with these suggestions, and more importantly, when you study them as part of national submissions, whether you are embarrassed by the clear show of ignorance which these shambolic nominations demonstrate.
Yours sincerely,
Andy Gould
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