A new season gets under way and, if we must look backwards at such a portentous moment, there's only one subject any self-respecting footie fan will want to consider: The summer soccer fest that was Euro 2008.

Unfortunately for Scotland, the vast majority of us will have watched it from the comfort of our sofas. The controversial and oh-so-late manner of our elimination from the qualifying tournament was painfully hard to take.

Many a tartan army foot soldier no doubt felt it would take something very special to make him/her watch the Saltire-free events in Switzerland and Austria.

But something very special is exactly what we got. The 13th finals of the European Championships had the kind of goals, games, players, teams, comebacks, refereeing decisions, shocks, champions and even stadia that make international football truly seem like the superior product it should be.

Yet, had you been paying any attention to the voices accompanying the action on your telly throughout June, you might have found it difficult to discern any praise for this rarest of occurrences - a football tournament that lives up to expectations.

No English-speaking nation took part in the finals for the first time since 1984. It is therefore extremely difficult to be xenophobic when providing blanket coverage of a tournament consisting entirely of "foreign" teams. But the BBC and ITV managed it.

The horrifically Anglo-centric pettiness of John Motson, Gary Lineker, Clive Tyldesley, Peter Drury, Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson plumbed new depths - especially as it became apparent Germany were going to make another major final.

Slating London-orientated commentators for their pro-English bias is a favourite and often lazy pastime for the Scottish armchair fan.

North of the border, remote control in hand, we can be guilty of actually hoping for some genuine Jimmy Hill-isms to slip down the microphone in a desperate bid to justify our dislike for the Auld Enemy. But this summer went beyond the pale. This summer, the punditry was simply embarrassing.

Germany reached their seventh European Championship final - to add to their seven appearances in the World Cup final - yet were relentlessly described as "lucky" and, in fact, received not one unqualified compliment from ANY pundit on either the Beeb or ITV.

The nation which hosted the last Euro finals had apparently changed its name from "Portugal" to "Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal".

And, as Spain humbled Russia in the group stages with a stunning display of beautiful inter-passing and counter-attacking soccer, Jonathan Pearce turned to Mark Lawrenson and emitted the irony-free mouthful which best summed up the British editorial remit for the entire summer: "Mark, you have to ask, where does this leave England?"

At home, Jonathan. It leaves them at home.

The thinking English football fan or journo also found it embarrassing. The southern broadsheets have continually stated as much since Motson's sneering disinterest during the opening ceremony in Basel. But this misses the point. Those who know how bad it is do not, in fact, worry ITV or BBC.

Anyone with a genuine love of the game was going to watch the tournament anyway - genuine lovers of the game wouldn't let the commentators put us off the action and this makes money in the viewing-figures bank.

No, the two big terrestrial channels can only secure or increase their "market share" by attracting the attention of the casual football idiot. Why? Because there are far more of them than people who retain the sense of historical context and the appetite for tactical chess matches which prevents one switching over to Neighbours when Romania and France are drawing 0-0 and will clearly ALWAYS be drawing 0-0 if they're allowed to continue.

BBC and ITV need to draw in the kind of people who take Sky's Super Sunday commercials as their guide to football loyalty. The viewing figures go through the roof when you can reel in the type of football fan who, for example, thinks Tim Lovejoy is both knowledgeable and funny or that he has any genuine love for the game.

It's the lads' mag-reading, Premier League-centric, Budweiser-in-the-fridge, Dominos Pizza-on-speed-dial generation who make up the vast majority of TV football fans and the networks must persuade THEM to watch - not us.

Basically, if England or Manchester United aren't involved, English broadcasters will make them involved - by slagging the Germans or lavishing praise on Ronaldo. This is how they attract the lowest common denominator, floating-voter armchair fan.

They don't worry about you and I, the true lovers of the game - the people who can be partisan about the game itself rather than the teams taking part. TV knows it has US in the bag the moment we see a ball on a bit of grass.

What a pity that Spain's hoodoo-busting, Arshavin's arrival, Holland's mesmeric destruction of Italy and France and Turkey's utterly exhausting capacity for gut-wrenching drama, was completely wasted on the TV pundits who brought them to us.

We, the aficionado, must remember what's what – ie. that at no time in their history have Germany ever been lucky and that England are rarely anything more than a quarter-final team. And very often so much less.

Back to you in the studio, Gary.