A BBC staple will now not be on air after this weekend.
The BBC introduced the tip of one in every of their longest-running reveals final month (Picture: Getty) This text comprises affiliate hyperlinks, we are going to obtain a fee on any gross sales we generate from it. Study extra
Soccer Focus’ exceptional 52-year reign because the world’s longest-running soccer journal programme will draw to a detailed this weekend. The ultimate instalment of the Saturday afternoon establishment will air on Sunday because the Premier League season reaches its conclusion.
The cancellation of the BBC’s legendary soccer present was revealed final month, with presenter Alex Scott and her predecessor Dan Walker each taking to social media to specific their disappointment on the determination. Walker – who fronted the programme from 2009 to 2021 – swiftly shared his response to the surprising information, recalling his childhood recollections of watching it earlier than incomes the honour of main the present himself.
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He wrote on X: “Actually unhappy to listen to concerning the finish of Soccer Focus. I liked that present rising up. I used to look at it each week with my dad and I bear in mind how proud he was after I acquired the job. It was such a privilege to sit down within the chair for 12 years, work with an incredible workforce on and off air and kind so many lasting friendships.
“Saturdays have been all the time particular. The soccer panorama is continually altering and it is disappointing that there is not house for a present that has meant a lot to so many individuals for thus a few years.” The ultimate broadcast at 12pm will sit up for the closing day of the 2025/26 marketing campaign and replicate upon the programme’s distinguished legacy, with Scott fronting the present as its last presenter.
The Arsenal and England legend acknowledged following the announcement that she was conscious this season would mark her departure from Soccer Focus. In an intensive Instagram message, Scott described her five-year tenure as host as “extremely particular” whereas paying homage to her colleagues and the viewers who watched each Saturday. She wrote: “I all the time knew this is able to be my final season on the present, which the BBC have been conscious of too.
“My intention was to maneuver quietly into the subsequent chapter, however generally issues change. When this present started all these years in the past, social media wasn’t a driving pressure, podcasts did not exist, and there was no instantaneous entry to data in the way in which there may be at the moment.
“Now by the point we go on air the fact is you have already seen it, debated it and lived it throughout so many platforms. That shift has modified the entire business. TV audiences have been declining for years, whereas digital and on-demand viewing continues to develop.
“To have been a part of it has been extremely particular, and I am so grateful and pleased with the eight years I have been concerned, together with the 5 years I’ve had the honour of presenting it. It has been such an vital a part of my life, working with among the best folks within the enterprise, each on display screen and behind the scenes. I’ve liked a lot of it, the conversations, the laughter, and sharing so many large moments with you, the viewers. Thanks for being a part of it.”
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Soccer Focus’ Saturday 12.45pm slot might be taken over by The Soccer Interview subsequent season. Hosted by Kelly Somers, the present has beforehand featured interviews with Bukayo Saka, Bernardo Silva, Emma Hayes, Hugo Ekitike and Michael Carrick.
Scott stays a central determine within the BBC’s future plans, with the company outlining her forthcoming commitments in final month’s announcement. A part of their assertion learn: “Alex will play a key position throughout this 12 months’s FIFA World Cup, the 2027 FIFA Girls’s World Cup and BBC Sport’s ongoing protection of the Girls’s Tremendous League.
“She will even as soon as once more function one in every of this 12 months’s hosts of the BBC Sport Persona of the 12 months Awards, with extra new and thrilling initiatives with Alex attributable to be introduced within the coming months.”
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