Forum: Human commentators are what make watching football beautiful
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I watched Singapore lose 6-0 to our Causeway rivals Malaysia in the FIFA ASEAN Cup. Every shot that fizzed past Izwan Mahbud in the Singapore goal piled on frustration, shock and misery.
It was the kind of night every fan of any sport dreads. The raw emotion of the ordeal overwhelms and often dwells, dampening the mood of everything else until the next game.
Juxtapose that feeling fans felt with the soullessness of the commentary used for local broadcasts of the match – commentary that the FIFA-appointed broadcast company said was not AI-generated (Man City, Tiger Woods? Odd commentary in S’pore-Malaysia ASEAN Cup tie by host broadcaster: Mediacorp, Oct 2).
However, many people, including me, remain unconvinced. The sheer absurdity of the episode, along with the dearth of information online about this supposed human commentator, created a presumption of artificial intelligence use among many that cannot be displaced by a simple unsubstantiated statement.
The commentary that night got off to a bad start as the Singapore National Anthem was described as Japan’s anthem.
During the match, both teams must have really got into their stride, as the commentator mistook the Causeway derby to be a match between European giants Manchester City, Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund (and sporadically Stuttgart). Players must have been playing very well, as they were declared to be elite footballers – Harhys Stewart became Khvicha Kvaratskhelia; Nur Adam was Jeremie Frimpong; and Lionel Tan was Lionel Messi. There was even reference to golf, as the commentator described “a brilliant ball by Ryder Cup captain Tiger Woods”.
Special moments in football are made all the more memorable when accompanied by live commentary. It conveys emotion in a way no large language model will be able to. Where AI models see data points, human commentators see poetry unravelling on the pitch. Take that away, and you strip the beautiful game of much of its soul.
Rewatching the broadcast of Ilhan Fandi’s winning goal against Hong Kong in the Asian Cup qualifier, what made the commentary special wasn’t just the words used. It was the human voice – the elation, the excitement and the enthusiasm. It was in the audio distortion as the commentator shouted a tad too loudly into his microphone. It was perfect human imperfection.
Aiman Jianhao Ikram