That hoary aphorism ‘be careful what you wish for’ may be a hackneyed one, but there’s nothing football pundits like more than a sagacious cliche. I dare say Gary Lineker used it on more than one occasion during his long tenure as Match of the Day presenter. And many people were glad and relieved when the lavishly-remunerated pundit was forced to relinquish that role in May, following a stream of unwise political interventions on social media. But, as the saying goes, they may now regret that their wish came true.
The new direction taken by Match of the Day represents the thin end of the wedge
The new incarnation of BBC’s flagship football programme, presented by Mark Chapman, Gabby Logan and Kelly Cates, has not proved popular. Average ratings have slumped by more than 10 per cent this season compared to the same period a year ago, falling from 2.68 million to 2.39 million.
Some may attribute this slide to the corporation’s decision to post Premier League highlights on its website more than two hours before the show airs on BBC1 at 10.30 p.m. on Saturday night. Others point to a dip in its ratings even before Lineker’s departure, consistent with a long-term drift from live mainstream television in general. Yet the fact that its ratings have slumped precipitously since Lineker’s departure suggest some other factor at play.
Simply put, could it be that viewers resent that a programme dedicated to an all-male competition, the Premier League, no longer has an all-male – or even majority male – line-up? After all, witness what happened to its lunchtime companion show, Football Focus, when it replaced Dan Walker with former Lioness Alex Scott in 2021. Within four years, it had shed one third of its audience. Some were likewise keen to attribute this plummet to gradual change in viewing habits. That alone doesn’t account for the swift and abrupt fall in the ratings of both programmes.
Television viewers are not stupid. They can sense political machinations behind the scenes. Most are well aware of the over-representation of ethnic minorities on television adverts. They know why those who produce them feel it imperative to make commercials that distort this country’s demographic make-up: to conform to a progressive political mood.
The BBC’s rationale is identical and no less transparent. Walker’s replacement, Scott, was not only female, but mixed race and has had relationships with men and women. That appointment smacked of tokenism. It seemed to replicate the BBC’s unspoken rule of ‘white male presenter out, ethnic minority or woman presenter in’ – a rule that has also applied to Question Time, Mastermind and University Challenge. The same fate undoubtedly awaits Radio 4’s In Our Time.
As it is today, the new direction taken by Match of the Day represents the thin end of the wedge. It only confirms the suspicion that the BBC is in thrall to voguish ideology. The current drift of Match of the Day – which also featured its first trans woman guest, Nicky Bandini, in September last year – has also come at a time when TV executives give seemingly equal airtime to women and men’s top flight and international football and rugby games, as if the sport dedicated to each sex commands the same nationwide following.
One of the BBC’s chronic problems is that it fails to keep it simple and just produce programmes that people want to watch, without surreptitiously letting slip its political beliefs. For all his naïve and thoughtless grandstanding, Gary Lineker seldom made known his political opinions on Match of the Day. Unlike any of the programme’s current presenters, he actually played in the Premier League. He was a consummate professional on, and off, the pitch.
Match of The Day’s new female presenters, Gabby Logan and Kelly Cates, are, undeniably, in a different league. Both are seasoned, knowledgeable and highly respected football and sports commentators, and both their fathers – Terry Yorath and Kenny Dalglish – played in the top flight of English football. Their appointment in a different era, even 20 years ago before hyper-tokenism became the tedious TV norm, might have raised fewer eyebrows.
Male – and female – viewers of programmes dedicated to a male version of their favourite sport notice the illogical political intent behind the BBC’s manoeuvres. And they find it exasperating. While males are scolded for their ‘toxic masculinity’ or reminded of their ‘privilege’, even if they grew up in a working-class area, football represents a last place of comfort and escape. It’s one of the few remaining arenas where men are allowed to be men. Now even that’s being taken away from them.
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