AFTER criticising the lack of "live sport covered by the once-unbeatable BBC, I was interested to learn that, yet again, ITV have managed to secure the "live game for the second leg of the Euro 2000 qualifier at Wembley.

Once again, they are outwitting the BBC - whose pathetic offering was the whole of the first leg at Hampden Park but only after more or less everybody knew the score as it was not shown until 4pm - 20 minutes after the game had ended.

It proves that the BBC just simply cannot come up with football that will have the nation gobsmacked.

Years ago, the BBC was number one in the field of all major sporting events.

Now, unfortunately, ITV seems to have all the answers and money to snatch all the major sports events, leaving the poor old BBC way behind.

I wouldn't care, but the BBC once were the kings of covering World Cup finals, Test Match cricket, Wimbledon - I could go on and on. Now, it's simply the case that they can't compete with the likes of ITV and the main sports channel nowadays - Sky TV.

M HIBBERT, Ivan Street, Burnley.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.