{"id":626214,"date":"2026-04-23T18:04:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T18:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/626214\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T18:04:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T18:04:19","slug":"bbc-blows-final-whistle-on-football-focus-as-show-scrapped-after-52-years-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/626214\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC blows final whistle on Football Focus as show scrapped after 52 years | Soccer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The BBC<\/a> will take Football Focus off air this summer, bringing to an end a 52-year stint as the unofficial kick-off to the sporting weekend.<\/p>\n

The national broadcaster said it had given \u201cextensive consideration\u201d to the decision to scrap the Saturday lunchtime programme, but the news will hardly come as a surprise as the changing nature of fans\u2019 media consumption has left the venerable televison show quietly forgotten in the age of clips and livestreams.<\/p>\n

The BBC said Football Focus\u2019s demise will be offset by an increase in digital content, including new sports shows made directly for YouTube as part of a deal between the broadcaster and media platform. The director of BBC Sport, Alex Kay-Jelski, denied that the move had come about as a result of cost-cutting, with as many as one in 10 jobs set to be lost at the corporation over the next two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cFootball Focus has been a hugely important programme in the history of BBC Sport and has played a key role in telling the stories of the game for generations of viewers,\u201d Kay-Jelski said. \u201cThis decision was made before last week\u2019s wider BBC savings announcement, reflecting the continued shift in how audiences engage with football and our commitment to evolving how we deliver content to reach fans wherever they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently presented by Alex Scott, Football Focus provides a mixture of interviews and features from the world of football with an emphasis on the weekend\u2019s games. It is a formula that has stood in place since 1974, when Bob Wilson became the first host of the show, providing a then-rare mix of on-camera interviews and behind-the-scenes footage from inside the game.<\/p>\n

Quick GuideHow do I sign up for sport breaking news alerts?Show<\/p>\n

Download the Guardian app from the iOS App Store on iPhone or the Google Play store on Android by searching for ‘The Guardian’.<\/p>\n

If you already have the Guardian app, make sure you\u2019re on the most recent version.<\/p>\n

In the Guardian app, tap the Profile settings button at the top right, then select Notifications.<\/p>\n

Turn on sport notifications.<\/p>\n

Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n

Such content is now ubiquitous online, both through offerings from broadcasters and clubs\u2019 own social media offerings. The journalistic approach of the BBC\u2019s in-house style, meanwhile, has for many viewers been superseded by the more impassioned and partisan voices of former professionals and fan influencers.<\/p>\n

Kay-Jelski said Scott would continue to be a \u201cbig part\u201d of the BBC\u2019s sports coverage, with a role at the summer\u2019s World Cup and the end-of-year Sports Personality of the Year Awards. He also teased \u201ca very exciting new project\u201d that could form part of the incoming YouTube offering.<\/p>\n

Replacing Football Focus in the TV schedules will be The Football Interview, a series led by presenter Kelly Somers which currently screens after Match of the Day on Saturday night. Final Score with Jason Mohammad will also start earlier on BBC One at 3.45pm on Saturdays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The BBC will take Football Focus off air this summer, bringing to an end a 52-year stint as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-626214","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}