I never realised I lived in a world so full of Bradford City fans.

All week it’s been Bantams this, City that, the BBC hate Bradford, they should be live on TV, blah, blah, blah.

Er, no.

TV companies pick the games they broadcast for a very good reason – they want people to watch them.

The BBC, for all their licence-fee and public service broadcasting, are no different to their commercial ‘partners’ BT Sport, with whom they share the FA Cup rights this season. They have to appeal to the largest audience possible.

When you have the, frankly pretty ropey, array of FA Cup quarter-final ties to pick from, you have to choose carefully.

Man United and Arsenal have tens of millions of TV watching fans between them. The BBC get to pick first, and chose to screen that tie. Obvious.

BT had the second pick, and opted for Liverpool v Blackburn. Not exactly a trouser-rubber, but they are guaranteed a decent audience thanks to the millions of plastic Scousers who will pack around screens, misty-eyed as they watch Steven Gerrard in his final Anfield FA Cup appearance.

So here’s where it gets (slightly) interesting. Two games remain, the BBC can choose to rebuild bridges with the Bantams – who they overlooked in the previous round in favour of Aston Villa v Leicester – or put Villa on terrestrial TV for the second straight round.

They chose Villa, and they did the right thing.

Not only do they get a West Midlands derby, they also have two newly-installed media-friendly managers to add intrigue and, crucially, lots more fans to appeal to.

So much of the abuse of the BBC, and its presenters, in the past few days has come on Twitter, so let me use Twitter to show why the BBC chose wisely.

The official Villa Twitter account has 392,000 followers. West Brom have 224,000. By contrast Bradford City have 38,300 – smaller than the gate at Villa Park might be. Even Reading have got 145,000 followers.

Now everyone loves the romance of the Cup, Ronnie Radford and Tim Buzaglo and Sutton and all that... but, the only thing that really matters, is who actually wants to sit down and watch all 90 minutes of it live on the telly?

The short answer is, probably not many, in either case, but the audience for the Villa game will attract more viewers than the Bradford game, simply down to supporter-base, even if there were neutrals pulling for City to make it all the way to Wembley.

Also in the news, it seems Sam Allardyce is going to get the boot at the end of the season.

When he was appointed as manager by Davids Gold and Sullivan in 2011, West Ham were a Championship club. He was tasked to get them promoted, and keep them in the Premier League.

Well, mission accomplished, he got them up at the first attempt and now they are eighth in the top-flight. So they’re getting rid in favour of Slaven Bilic with Karren Brady talking about Champions League within five years in their shiny new stadium.

It can’t just be me and Big Sam that would find it beyond hilarious if the Hammers struggle next year, go down, and move into the Olympic Stadium back in the wilderness of the Championship.