Soccer Focus is ready to be axed by the BBC after greater than 50 years on our screens
Soccer Focus is because of come to an finish (Picture: Visionhaus, Visionhaus/Getty Photographs) This text comprises affiliate hyperlinks, we are going to obtain a fee on any gross sales we generate from it. Study extra
This week has introduced the information that long-running BBC present Soccer Focus is ready to be axed, greater than half a century after it first graced our screens. The Beeb cited “altering viewers behaviours” as a key consider an announcement confirming the choice to convey the programme to an finish. Soccer Focus has been fronted by a lot of presenters all through its prolonged run, with Dan Walker and Alex Scott serving as its most up-to-date common hosts. The pair, nonetheless, discovered themselves at odds again in 2023 over the programme’s future amid stories of dwindling viewing figures.
“It is onerous to see Soccer Focus struggling,” mentioned Walker, who occupied the presenter’s chair between 2009 and 2021. “I liked it rising up and it was an honour to current it and I nonetheless miss it. We poured the whole lot into that present every week and labored onerous to maintain it related. I hope it stays a part of the TV panorama.” Scott responded with a gif, prompting Walker to make clear his remarks and need his fellow broadcaster effectively. To not be outdone, the previous England girls’s worldwide supplied a pointed reminder of what lay forward.
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“We now have massive interviews with Ange Postecoglou and Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard developing on the ‘Award’ profitable Soccer Focus tomorrow. Make {that a} headline,” she added. The published in query was being aired forward of Postecoglou’s first north London Derby as Tottenham supervisor, a sport which ended 2-2.
When confirming the axing of Soccer Focus, the BBC made clear that Scott’s position inside their broadcasting line-up was removed from over. “Soccer Focus is at the moment fronted by the sensible Alex Scott, who will stay on the coronary heart of BBC Sport’s soccer protection and largest sporting moments,” a part of their assertion learn.
“Alex will play a key position throughout this yr’s FIFA World Cup, the 2027 FIFA Girls’s World Cup and BBC Sport’s ongoing protection of the Girls’s Tremendous League. She may even as soon as once more function one among this yr’s hosts of the BBC Sport Character of the Yr Awards, with extra new and thrilling initiatives with Alex because of be introduced within the coming months.”
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Dan Walker hosted Soccer Focus for greater than a decade (Picture: Adam Fradgley – AMA, West Bromwich Albion FC through Getty Photographs)
BBC Sport Director Alex Kay-Jelski hinted at an upcoming announcement a couple of “very thrilling” enterprise with Scott, whom he described as “one among our best presenters”. Kay-Jelski additionally shed some extra gentle on the reasoning behind the choice to scrap Soccer Focus after such a protracted spell on terrestrial TV.
“Soccer Focus has been a vastly necessary programme within the historical past of BBC Sport and has performed a key position in telling the tales of the sport for generations of viewers,” Kay-Jelski mentioned in an announcement. “This choice was made earlier than final week’s wider BBC financial savings announcement, reflecting the continued shift in how audiences interact with soccer and our dedication to evolving how we ship content material to achieve followers wherever they’re.”
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