Within a female transmission production in the Champions League: extensive notes, touch -ups and Nando’s

A short distance away by car from the Heathrow airport in London is located in Stockley Park, a commercial estate that hosts the Tnt Sports studies. Inside the building, it soon becomes clear Atletico That everyone loves Nando’s, the quickly random food chain specialized in Portuguese chicken.

“I treat him as my football career,” says Karen Carney, an international ex-Paese in England. “Did I ate? Did I hydrate?”

Carney hasn’t eaten yet. Quite soon, it will affect a vegan wrapping before airing at 19.30 GMT (3.30pm et) while the coverage, which TNT sublicated by the Dazn right holder for the rendering of the Arsenal accounts with Real Madrid in the Champions League district, begins.

He completed his preparation yesterday, including the vision of the game last week in full and silent to form an original analysis. An hour and seven minutes from the end until he is on the air with the presenter Becky Ives and the ex-Arsenal colleague and the England professional Fara Williams, Carney is about to head to the clip room to make sure they have correct videotapes ready to go for his pre-match analysis.

“You’re learning every day. You have never learned it,” says Carley. “The same with football, the same with this. You will never be a teacher because he always changes and evolves. That’s why I like to do too much.”

In addition to Nando’s ordination, the surcharge seems to be a theme in the running in the earthquake studies of TNT, the sports division of Warner Bros. Discovery.

(O’Eill / The Next Next)

“It could be a female thing, if we are honest about it,” says Japqui Oatley, main director. “It is certainly a female thing”, its co-controller Lucy Ward jumps seamlessly, as if they were already on air.

“There are people sitting at home waiting to hook something,” says Oatley, who in 2007 became the first woman to comment on the game of the salient moments of the BBC. “In this modern it was of technology, if you are wrong a small thing … it could also be a slip of the language. You could say” I was in Birmingham last week “and you had to say” Burnley “. In the context of football, it is unforgivable.”

“You are talking live and constantly for over 90 minutes, under pressure and without script: you will do things wrong. The less you think, the better, the better” Ward says.

The former Leeds United striker was the victim of a hideous abuse, On social media in particularAfter commenting on men’s games.

“I receive messages that say,” please, please kill yourself, “says Ward.” I receive (abuse) by people who have never kicked a ball in their lives. This is what makes me laugh. IIt is ridiculous and is unpleasant, but I always say that I would never take the criticisms of someone so I wouldn’t go to advice.

“I listen to people who respect and I don’t take not to the rest. It’s very difficult. I have a really thick skin. When I go out with my friends at home and I show them the messages I receive, they are in tears that ask me how I deal with it. I.It’s not easy. You end up being rather insensitive. “

While the news of the team breaks, there is an impeccable control of the Oatley clock, who knows that it is time for you and Ward to disappear in their small commentary to organize their mountain of notes that they have already engaged in memory.

Ives, who previously informed the Department of the wardrobe of his plan to wear a Karen Millen black suit so as not to clash with the guests of the show or the enveloping green screen behind her, has already been microfasic reading her notes. Call time for her was 18.30. This gave her time to try the most technical aspects of the evening, such as connections inside and outside the commercial breaks. At 19:00, it is reached by Carney and Williams to prepare for the kick -off and one last test.

“I feel much more relaxed if we have gone through everything,” says Ives. “This for me is the fun part because the preparation is already done.”

Every few minutes, the Tait women’s head of the floor shouts how long until the three cameras start rolling. At this point, Coco Nettey and Georgina Sergi make -up fly to the final touches. Armed with powder brushes, combs, shots for lacquer and hands, their attention to detail is meticulous.

Ives, whose first port of call at 16:00 was the salon, says that make -ups doubled as therapists. “I have to add it to my workmanship now,” he jokes Nettey when he discovers it. “What is said in the makeup room remains in the makeup room,” adds Sergi.

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“Go there and everything you feel, you can download. Whether it’s work or personal, these girls, bless you weight,” says Ives. “Then they remain all night for the whole production. They are the ones who control the monitors. You trust those girls, like” I will take care of what I have to do on the screen, can you only check that I still don’t have my nando between my teeth and that my hair is not everywhere? “

When the show goes live, Nettey and Sergi look intensely.

“On that green screen, there can be a waterfall hair and we are like” Oh God who must be swept away! “” Says Sergi.

“We see everything,” says Nettey, turning to watch Carray on the screen. “Ok, well. That hair went away. I was in the gallery before and I was like, ‘he has to go.'”

“Twelve years ago, when I started on TV, I didn’t have a presenter I did.

“This shows the turn, which is adorable,” says Nettey, whose father is a director of the TNT floor. “They are all so different. Different backgrounds, different tones of the skin, different types of hair and this is important to have that representation.”

In the gallery, with various snacks crushed for the desks, they are all the systems go. There are 12 people who wear headphones and surrounded by an uninitable number of TV screens and computers. This is the team that speaks calmly that will direct and produce the game Arsenal will win 3-0 to create a semifinal with Lyon.

(O’Eill / The Next Next)

Next to the gallery and separated from a soundproof window in glass, a lone audio engineer is ensuring that everything is audible.

Again in the green room, the voices of Oatley and Ward will beatiolano down the corridor to guide the game. With their 30 minutes of pre-match chat that went without hitches, Ives, Carley and Williams relax on the sofas and look at the first half together with Scott Young, the senior vice-president of WBD Sports Europe of content, production and commercial activities. Carney is focused on the laser in the game and is already talking to the gallery asking for a particular possibility of Alessia Russo to be cut.

Williams and Carney, former teammates of England, are blocked while Ives made handwritten notes of key moments. They feel that the Madrid plan to defend is unsustainable and, in the second half, their instincts are corrected while the Russian Sandweres brace a strike by Mariona Caldentey to overcome a deficit of two goals from the first leg. Oatley greets him “one night that the fans of Arsenal will never forget”.

When the game ends, Oatley is standing to conclude the comment. This excited energy seems to infect them all even if they are a car 22 miles from the Emirates stadium and their colleague PitchSide journalist, Katie Shanahan. The decision to be “out of tube”, the comment speaks not to be on the spot, is becoming more common, says Oatley. “We all made a 100 % effort that we are here or on site, whether it is women’s or male football,” Ives said.

With his work done, Ward, who jumped into the singing building, jumps out with the same energy. These women have a lot from the shoulder and compete for, but just like the athletes enhanced on display, they all have so much to give.

(Photo above: O’Neill / The Next Next)