Former Liverpool striker’s new app to bring outspoken opinion to football punditry

What’s the worst thing about football?

Is it the astronomical wages paid to 19 year-olds who couldn’t care less about your club? Is it the low standard of the Premier League football you pay your own exorbitant fees to watch? Or is it the fact that, as the dawn of the digital age gives way to a bright spring morning, there’s just too much content across the internet and social media for you to take in?

Well, for former Liverpool striker Stan Collymore, it’s the sanitised nature of the coverage of the sport these days. Pundits without opinions and people sitting on the fence has begun to grate so much with Collymore that he has launched his own app, Call Collymore; a football phone-in for the digital revolution, and one where voicing your opinion matters more than trying not to upset people.

Football, they say, is a game of opinions. The fluid nature of the action in the sport means that there are unlimited possibilities, and multiple solutions to tactical problems. That means everyone’s opinion is valid. But the emotional connection that many have towards their club means that opinions can often upset, even if they’re moderate and well thought through: just look at any comments section on a football opinion piece.

Collymore is one of the more outspoken pundits you’ll see covering the game across TV or radio. But the fact that one of the biggest social spaces for post-match opinion is the radio phone-in means that many voices aren’t heard: not only is there limited space to fit callers into the programme schedule, but given the rise in social media and digital platforms, most people won’t be listening to radio coverage. Collymore’s stint as a broadcaster on TalkSport, too, meant that his popular phone-in could be reached mostly in the UK, but an app will allow anyone around the world to listen and, crucially, voice their own opinions.

So step forward Collymore with his app that brings the radio phone-in to a mobile-optimised app that streams the the post-match debate live, and complete with interactive content and social media, encouraging fans to get in on the action, but also keeps the content available afterwards as an on-demand offering.

It’ll be interesting to see how well it does!

About author

Chris McMullan
Chris McMullan 831 posts

Chris is a sports journalist and editor of Digital Sport - follow him on Twitter @CJMcMullan_

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