Fury as Olympic broadcasters repeatedly get names of Team GB’s women’s football team wrong

Team GB’s Rachel Daly and Kim Little hit out at “disappointing” Olympic broadcasters – after they repeatedly got the women’s football team’s names wrong during their match against Canada.

Among the commentator’s errors was top scorer, Ellen White, referred to as “Ellie White”; Fifa Women’s Player of the Year winner, Lucy Bronze, mistaken for “Linda” and the Manchester City midfielder Caroline Weir was renamed “Catherine.”

Outside of GB’s fixture, Arsenal and Netherlands forward, Vivianne Miedema was named “Abbie Miedema.” The mistakes branched beyond the players, with one commentator saying “Women’s Soccer League” instead of the Women’s Super League. They also noted that footballer, Little, had “140 caps for England.”

While Team GB women’s football team prepare to play in Friday’s quarter-final of the Tokyo Olympics, Little slams the “disappointing” errors and calls for professionalism to be improved.

“I think it is disappointing. And I think that’s a common theme within the women’s game,” she said. “As its professionalised, as the game’s become a professional sport, the things around it need to keep improving, too, as well as broadcasting, the media.

“The kind of level of expertise, when commentating on games, and I think because the women’s game is not as widely watched yet as the men’s game, there’s not I suppose as many commentators who know the game as well, and are obviously employed to do so.”

“So yeah, it’s disappointing, but hopefully, voicing it, and the people that are making the mistakes are made aware of it so that that side of the game can continue to improve.”

It wasn’t just the players who were frustrated with the unfortunate mishaps; viewers were also outraged and took to Twitter.

Spurs footballer, Kerys Harrop, called for Eurosport to hire a commentator ‘who knows the women’s game properly’, while another branded the mistakes as ‘embarrassing.’

While one user highlighted that there probably wouldn’t be as many errors if it were the men’s team.

The commentator, who called, ‘Ellie for like the hundredth time in 10 minutes’, enraged one viewer.

While Eurosport aired the matches on Eurosport, the Olympic Broadcasting Services provided the commentary.