As I believe, three minutes is the time limit for summaries of football matches that can be shown on televisions that do not have the rights to broadcast the matches.
A football match lasts 90 minutes. This means, at most, 60 minutes of football played, plus 30 minutes of interruptions: fouls, real or simulated, but always spectacular; slow replacements of the ball in play; discussions with opponents and the referee; substitutions, in which the substituted players drag themselves endlessly across the “playing rectangle” before leaving it; tele-dialogues between the referee and the famous VAR (video assistant referee – this very modern and already controversial football institution, a kind of virtual lynx’s eye, which allows us to determine that the supposed goal scorer was with the tip of the boot, the little finger of the left hand, or even the tip of the nasal appendage, of substantial scope, 11 millimeters beyond the offside line (a mysterious imaginary line which changes its relative position according to the television channel that repeats, over and over again, the images of the “infringement”). With all this, a match lasts up to 110 minutes – of which only 60 were, at best, played (at the stadium, the other 50 minutes were spent by spectators drinking beer, insulting the referee’s mother and vandalizing the venue, especially the poor seats).
Having said that, one can see the sufficiency of a three-minute summary for the common spectator: one sees the goals, if they existed, half a dozen fouls better represented and applauded or whistled, the penalty that was not signaled, or was poorly signaled, – five times, one of which in slow motion – and that dubious 11 millimeter offside.
Having reached this conclusion, I asked myself why not apply the three-minute rule to television news, which does not usually last less than 90 minutes – (with the exception of RTP2, which, perhaps due to this news brevity, often has its existence at risk).
I propose an exercise. Let’s take these 90 minutes away:
15 minutes of advertising;
30 minutes of information already given in three news programs on the same day (six, if they are specialized information channels);
20 minutes of bullshit conversations, between pivots more interested in showing off their supposed skills in anything than listening to commonplaces, nonsense and statistics from countless experts in anything, especially retired military personnel.
5 minutes of nonsense in bad English from Trump and his henchmen;
10 minutes of subjects of “national interest” – Sócrates, Spinumviva, incidents on reality shows, violations of judicial secrecy, chaos at Lisbon airport;
7 minutes of spoken football – v. above.
3 minutes left – situation in Gaza, war in Ukraine, births in ambulances, environmental changes, domestic violence in Portugal.
They’re enough for the most important thing, right?
Former president of the Constitutional Court and subscriber of the 50+50 Manifesto for justice reform.