Satellite saturation is the name of the game on Eurosport.

The channel, broadcast throughout the continent, is covering all games, showing 388 hours, give or take a bit of extra time, and 33 live games.

In its bid to serve so many of our Euro-neighbours, Eurosport seems to have earned a reputation of being a bit downmarket in its presentation.

The build-up to last night's Holland v Yugoslavia game certainly had its fair share of curious moments.

At one stage Dutch international brothers Richard and Robert Witsche were interviewed by a German presenter with a studio-based Englishman, called, I think, Tim Cable (apt for satellite) acting as interpreter.

Some of the half-time adverts, and there were plenty of them, were also in German.

But the screening of the actual match was not that far removed from either BBC or ITV - not surprising as French TV is responsible for the pictures.

It's the familiar commentator and analyst combination with former Minster FM radio man Guy Mowbray making a decent job of describing the action.

His sidekick, Billy McNeill, one of the few Scots remaining in France, lacked the tactical insight of a David Pleat or a Ron Atkinson. Not surprising really as he lists Manchester City as one of his managerial posts.

The coverage is informative, but not particularly entertaining, lacking the humour of both mainstream channels, but the half-time round-up of World Cup news from various camps was a bonus and much better than the rather meaningless chats with England players which BBC and ITV seem duty bound to screen.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.