Suck eggs? But how?

It's a common site in newspapers, both national and local, a story or comment condemning the waste of an unusually-large amount of money on a survey that tells us exactly what we already know.

You know the sort: '£15,000 for university to prove men have different down-belows to women', that kind of thing.

Yet the one that caught my eye this week was commissioned and published by the previously-esteemed Press Gazette.

The story (online) was headlined: 'PG poll: Web most popular source of sport news'

Well flip me sideways and call me Doreen.

I presume the PG (since when was it called that?) is intending for us newspaper bods to gasp in amazement that mullet-haired readers no longer get on their Chopper bikes, rush down to their independent newsagent every morning, eager to hand over their 5p for a paper.

But amazingly, most of us no longer live in 1975.

Of course the internet is the most popular way of finding out sport news, doh! In the world of a sports fan - and I can not call myself in any way a dedicated one, yet can still understand their obsession - any minute could bring news of a transfer deal, an injury to your star player, a manager's resignation, team news, etc.

So why would you wait?

The only thing that surprised me was the fact that a television provider was picked out as the favourite 'publication, website or broadcast outlet for sports news'.

But that wasn't what surprised me (obviously, if you can watch something on telly, you would rather that surely?), no, what surprised me was that the most popular choice among the 1,000 apparently-sensible adults polled, was the fuckin' BBC!

Now, far be it from me to knock our over-funded, snobbish and often rubbish public broadcaster but clearly, this is simply wrong.

I can only presume that maybe, just maybe, those polled DO in fact live in 1975, and Football bleedin' Focus remains king, in a land where a jibbering Mark Lawrenson and, quite frankly, annoying Lee Dixon share private jokes that noone else can find funny with the likes of Martin Keown (and he knows about the subtlety of tactics how?).

But that stand out fact aside, this survey was completely pointless. And I would even dare to hazard a guess that those who voted for good old Aunty still initially found their sports news online, only to watch the Footy Focus feature on it while their wives or husbands or whatever else were out picking up the bread.

Hang on though, hold the phone, this wasn't the only surprising thing in the results.

Only three newspapers made it into the top ten favoured sources of sport news.

Well fuck me, perhaps it is earlier than 1975, as I thought none would get in there.