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For so long an integral part of the BBC Holy Trinity of Saturday programming alongside Final Score and Match of the Day, Football Focus will leave our screens come season’s end. First aired back when the plot currently occupied by Stamford Bridge’s Matthew Harding Stand served as a matchday car park – as opposed to a seething mass of disgruntled Chelsea fans – the show’s longevity is undeniable. Now, it has fallen victim to the BBC’s ongoing pruning exercise – a casualty of a budget that is overseeing more trims than Marc Cucurella’s blabbermouth barber. For Football Daily, the news was somewhat bittersweet; throughout our childhood, youth and a significant chunk of our years as a hungover grown-up, the Saturday lunchtime show was appointment viewing. However, the announcement regarding its imminent demise only came as a surprise because it’s no longer part of our weekend routine and we presumed it had been binned off already.
“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,” parped BBC Sport chief Alex Kay-Jelski. “This decision was made before last week’s wider BBC savings announcement, reflecting the continued shift in how audiences engage with football.” Football Focus was conceived in an era when most households were just getting to grips with phones and long before insider gossip, live scores, and match highlights became available at the touch of a button on those magic witch portals in our pockets. Consequently, the show has become something of an anachronism. It is a weekly preview show that often begins after the action is already under way, duty-bound to report on events that have already been exhaustively covered elsewhere.
