Alex Scott: ‘I was quitting Football Focus anyway’

Scott and her team were ordered to deliver punchier interviews and debate to arrest a long-standing slump in ratings, despite viewing figures enjoying a small upturn the previous year.

Tension about show’s performance

It has been alleged that Scott felt bruised by BBC inquests into the declining performance of the show.

Such concerns were highlighted in September 2023, when Dan Walker, the previous host, stirred up debate over the programme’s future by posting on social media: “It’s hard to see Football Focus struggling. I loved it growing up and it was an honour to present it and I still miss it. We poured everything into that show every week and worked hard to keep it relevant. I hope it stays part of the TV landscape.”

Scott posted a single-word reply – “Interesting” – in an exchange that hinted at tension between the show’s two most recent presenters. About the same time, she posted: “Thank you to everyone who tuned into Football Focus, your support for such an iconic show means so much to everyone who works across it. Viewing figures double that of anything on TV at that time yesterday.”

Kay-Jelski confirmed that Scott will still feature in the BBC’s football coverage. He said: “Alex Scott is one of our finest presenters, is hugely popular across the men and women’s game and is a big part of our present and future. She will remain at the heart of our sports output across the men’s World Cup this year and the women’s World Cup in 2027, as well as continuing her lead role on the Women’s Super League and BBC Sport Personality of the Year.”

Kay-Jelski added: “Football 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. This decision was made before last week’s 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.”

Outdated format

In an age before social media and instant video highlights, Football Focus was essential viewing, featuring exclusive interviews with players and managers before the weekend’s action began.

Its best-known presenter is still its first, Bob Wilson, who retired from his career as Arsenal’s goalkeeper in 1974 and went straight into the studio for Football Focus for the start of the following season.

Bob Wilson was Football Focus’s first full-time presenter, starting not long after he retired from playing

Wilson thus found himself up against a vastly more experienced broadcaster in Brian Moore, who presented ITV’s On The Ball in the 1960s.

In his autobiography, Wilson wrote: “Whenever we met up… [Moore] would claim a larger midday audience and I would challenge his figures.”

Originally, Football Focus lasted for only 15 or 20 minutes, but as its audience grew, so too did its duration, reaching 40 or 50 minutes by the turn of the century.

Between 1996 and 1999, it was presented by Gary Lineker, thus paving his way to a higher-profile role on Match of the Day.

Subsequent appointments have included Ray Stubbs and Manish Bhasin, who once left Sir Tony Blair speechless by asking the then prime minister about his claims to have followed Newcastle United in his youth.

Tony Blair was a Football Focus guest during his time as prime minister in 2005 - Jeff Overs/BBC via Getty Images

After a 12-year stint from Walker, who stepped down in 2021, another former England footballer – Scott – became the first female presenter. Also, the last.

While the BBC does not publish viewing figures, *Football Focus’*s audience plunged from 957,000 during the 2019-20 season to 687,000 three years later. Last season that figure stood at 739,000.

Whatever the merits of individual presenters, *Football Focus’*s format has started to look extremely old-fashioned in an era of content creators and dedicated YouTube channels.

For the first 40 years of its life, viewers were happy to sit through a general magazine show without knowing which clubs might be featured. But the modern generation of football fans is much more likely to pursue specific, targeted coverage of their favourite team.

Mark Lawrenson, who was let go by the BBC in 2022 after appearing on Football Focus for 25 years, said the following year that the programme had “served its time”.

Like vinyl records or milk floats, Football Focus has had its day

Like vinyl records and milk-float deliveries, the very concept of Football Focus still evokes fond memories – even though most of us have barely watched it for years

The BBC’s decision to cancel the show is unlikely to affect our Saturday routines one jot.

How different to the heyday of Bob Wilson’s reign, when the choice between Football Focus and ITV’s On The Ball felt like it said something about you. The button you pushed – one of four on the side of your cathode ray tube TV – was akin to a declaration of faith, like the equally existential decision about whether to watch the genial Multi-Coloured Swap Shop or the anarchic Tiswas.

In the mid-1980s, a typical Focus might include an interview with Ian Rush, a debate on England team selection featuring Jimmy “the Chin” Hill, and an update on Paul McGrath’s fitness for a big clash at Old Trafford.

Simple fare, perhaps, but it was all we knew. In an era where our entertainment options were limited to street football, Monopoly and the primitive computer game Pong, a behind-the-scenes glimpse of training at Highbury felt like the height of sophistication.

Like the Church of England, Football Focus was gentle, measured and paternalistic. Indeed, this was true of the majority of BBC Sport’s output, which went out of its way not to give offence. In his autobiography, the ever-dependable Wilson describes how he nearly lost his job at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics after daring to suggest that decathlon champion Daley Thompson – who chatted and whistled throughout the medal ceremony – could have shown more respect to the national anthem.

In a modern world of engagement and passionate debate, such moderation was never going to compete with the new attention-seekers, whether they be tactical anoraks, one-club obsessives, or quirky eccentrics like that Manchester United fan who refuses to cut his hair.

When I returned to Football Focus on TV review duty in December, I was amazed by how safe it felt, and how old-fashioned: more bland daytime filler, less vital bulletin from the sporting front lines.

Football Focus sometimes feels bland within the modern media landscape - BBC

Alex Scott made for a stilted presence in the presenter’s chair, and even though we heard some passable chat from the two pundits – retired defenders Ashley Williams and Stephen Warnock – there was not much star wattage on offer.

In the circumstances, the loss of an estimated 40 per cent of Focus’s viewers since the departure of Dan Walker in 2021 – after a high that was artificially inflated by the Covid pandemic – seemed like a decent result for the BBC. With an average Focus sandwiched between Homes Under The Hammer and Bargain Hunt, I surmised that many TVs only stayed on in the background while their owners were preparing lunch.

Viewing figures declined after Dan Walker left the show

The next question is how long Football Focus’s elder sibling, Match of the Day, can hold out in a competitive market. Again, viewing figures are reported to be down this year by around 10 per cent – which could partly be explained by the recent departure of Gary Lineker. Yet this probably owes more to the availability of online highlights packages shortly after the conclusion of every match.

The BBC’s head of sport, 42-year-old Alex Kay-Jelski, is a digital native who has spent his previous career chasing eyeballs online rather than working amid the egos and inertia of traditional broadcasting organisations. Just as advertising dollars have migrated from the screens of our TVs to those of our laptops and iPhones, so too have the priorities of BBC Sport.

You can hardly blame Kay-Jelski. By focusing more on iPlayer than BBC One, he is only responding to modern appetites. And in an age of outrage, the gentility of Football Focus now feels as outdated as Angel Delight.

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