Match of the Day new presenters
Alex Jay-Kerski’s (BBC Director of Sport) garlanding of the three new Match Of The Day presenters (Kelly Cates, Gabby Logan and Mark Chapman) reminded me of the line in the John Betjeman poem The Village Inn.
Here the virtues of the modernisation of the local pub are extolled by the Brewer’s PRO:
“A man who really ought to know for he is paid for saying so.”
You could hardly expect the Director of BBC Sport to remind us that once the MOTD viewing figure was 18 million, but now with goals readily accessible on mobile phones and other players like Sky and TNT, the audience is barely 2 million.
Jimmy Hill as chief presenter was not exactly everyone’s ‘cup of tea’ but he would ask uncomfortable questions.
I once remember him showing footage of Chelsea hooligans laying into away fans.
Des Lynam, who took over from him, had a geniality and was an excellent interface between the programme and viewer.
Gary Lineker, with his flat Midland accent and sardonic humour, was initially ill at ease but held the presenting job for eighteen years and was BBC’s highest paid broadcaster though he would also present for rival broadcasters.
Whilst his high pay and his expressed views on anything and everything had made the appointment of fresh presenters likely. Lineker had already moved into podcasting with the successful The Rest Is History series produced by his Goalhanger Productions.
Same old, same old. You can pretty much guarantee that the issues that trouble supporters will not be discussed on the programme topics – like ticket prices, the marginalisation of fans, exorbitant players’ wages and the maximisation of venue revenues.
Three is an uncomfortable number. Kelly Cates presents on Sky, Gabby Logan a fully paid-up member of the BBC sisterhood, won’t be too happy that analyst Alan Shearer and Chappers (as he is known in his cosy excluding world) will continue to make observations of interminable length.
I cannot see this troika restoring MOTD to its former glory days.