Match of the Day should show less football, the chairman of the BBC has said.
Samir Shah wants the corporation’s Premier League highlights programme to focus more on analysis when Gary Lineker steps down as host at the end of the season.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, Shah was said to have acknowledged many viewers had already watched top-flight highlights – including goals – long before Match of the Day aired on a Saturday or Sunday night.
He said the show “should not be built around highlights. It should be built around analysis and examination of the match to give viewers a deeper insight”.
The BBC declined to comment.
Shah’s intervention comes amid what was already threatening to be the biggest overhaul of the corporation’s flagship football programme since Lineker became host 26 years ago.
Less football?
When Lineker announced he was stepping down, he said the BBC planned to make changes to the show when its new contract for the rights to Premier League football begins in August. He told his own The Rest is Football podcast: “I think, the next contract, they’re looking to do Match of the Day slightly differently, so I think it makes sense for someone else to take the helm.”
Lineker was speaking amid reports that Roman Kemp, 32, had held talks about a role on the show as part of a bid by BBC director of sport Alex Kay-Jelski to attract younger viewers.
Last week, Gabby Logan – one of Lineker’s successors along with Mark Chapman and Kelly Cates – vowed that Match of the Day would be “all about the football” when Lineker departed. She told the ainslie + ainslie Performance People podcast the show “won’t be totally different”, adding: “Nobody wants to throw the baby out with the bath water. It’s a football highlights show, we’ve got the same kind of pundits… and it’s all about the football.”
That has been thrown into doubt just days later by Shah’s comments about the programme. Indeed, with the new UK Premier League TV contract meaning 270 games will be shown live from next season, instead of 200, and a clamour in some quarters for even more from 2029, there is a danger of Match of the Day becoming less relevant than ever.
New presenting trio
The biggest change to Match of the Day is undoubtedly the appointment of its first three-strong presenting team of Chapman, Logan and Cates. The trio will combine the role with their other broadcasting commitments, with Chapman continuing to present live football and rugby league matches for television and radio, Logan anchoring the BBC’s coverage of the Six Nations – unless the corporation surrenders the rights – and international athletics, and Cates fronting live Premier League games for Sky Sports.
Losing Lineker will save the BBC a major chunk of his £1.35 million salary, with his replacements unlikely to earn anywhere near as much between them. It will also help prevent a repeat of the host of Match of the Day becoming a lightning rod for criticism of the corporation, particularly when it comes to its rules on impartiality.
The change has not met with universal approval, however, with legendary former BBC commentator Barry Davies telling The Sun last week: “I’m surprised at the decision that’s been made. But then I’m quite surprised at the jobs that are given to various people these days, and the need apparently to use people.”
Same old pundits?
Lineker may be leaving but his The Rest is Football co-hosts Alan Shearer and Micah Richards have signed new contracts to remain on Match of the Day. Shearer looks poised to become the show’s highest-paid star after taking home £380,000-£384,999 in 2023/24.
Former Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart appears to be being groomed for a major role in the post-Lineker future alongside regular contributors Danny Murphy, Leon Osman, Shay Given, Stephen Warnock and Ashley Williams. They could yet be joined by Wayne Rooney, presuming he does not get another managerial job.
However, having appointed the show’s first two permanent female presenters, do not be surprised if Kay-Jelski follows suit by giving Fara Williams or another former England Women’s player a more prominent role on the programme.
These Match of the Day plans send a shudder down my spine
There are some things in life that just feel right. Things that do not need to be changed. Things that are absolutely fine the way they are. The joy comes from knowing precisely what you are going to get. It is the comfort blanket of familiarity. Match of the Day is one of those things.
There is a reason Match of the Day is the most popular and long-running football show on television. It works as a football highlights show because it has the ideal blend of match action and studio analysis. It has always worked and remains extremely popular by modern viewing standards.
Whether you watch it live on a Saturday evening, on the sofa, or are up early on Sunday morning, whether you watch it on catch up on BBC’s iPlayer, Match of the Day remains a staple ingredient in the football diet of millions of people. Particularly for those of us of a certain age, but also for those of us with children who have been introduced to football through Match of the Day – usually fast forwarding the “boring” talking bit in between the match action. This is the view of my 10-year old, and is shared by the children of my friends too.
The show does not need to be overhauled, it does not need to be altered and it certainly does not need a panel of former footballers sharing even more of their “analysis” while pontificating on the game’s talking points.
BBC chairman Samir Shah’s comments send a shudder down the spine. We are living in an era that already suffers from overkill in football analysis. What started out as a clever niche, trailblazed by Sky Sports on a Monday night, has already reached market saturation.
If you want to listen to ex-pros and other talking heads share their views and opinions, listen to one of the hundreds of football podcasts out there. Or have a read of a newspaper like this one, or even the BBC Sport’s own website. Analysis is everywhere, everyone has a view and never before have so many people had a chance to share it. From fanzines to specialist football websites, analysis and football chat is a click of a button away.
I do not write this to knock the BBC. I think its football coverage is excellent, from radio to television, there is something for everyone. But the thing I, and many people of my generation, love the most is MOTD.
Yes, you already know the results and in the internet age, you have probably seen the goals too. If you want to. I prefer to wait until MOTD but even in a changing world, you do not need to alter something for the sake of it.
Even if you have seen the goals, you will not have seen extended match highlights. You will not have a sense of the flow and narrative of the game and, unless you are a real football addict, you are very unlikely to have watched all the goals, or read about all of the games, that are covered in that particular show.
More than that, you will have not seen the goal celebrations, you will have not experienced the noise, you will not have had a window into the joy and despair of football fans up and down the country.
That is what Match of the Day provides. It is a semi-detailed look at the Saturday games and that is perfect. It wraps everything up in a neat package, makes you think when you listen to what the pundits have to say, but mainly just lets you watch some football. It lets you see what happens with your own eyes, so you can make your own mind up. It does not need to be analysed or explained. The pleasure comes simply from the watching.
With its extended highlights from each game, it already does more than just show the goals. The goals do not tell the story of a game – you only get that by watching it live – but Match of the Day is the next best thing. it has been for decades and it can be for decades to come.
As the old saying goes: if it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it. If you do, you’ll probably screw it up.
