“We’re on Netflix baby!” Yes, football is back, and with it the delicious tensions in our broadcast echo chambers. If you thought Hull City beating Manchester United was the story of the weekend, you haven’t been paying attention.
The BBC’s “flagship” Match of the Day continues to suffer the consequences of adapting to change, and is an easy target for start-ups. Thus did MOTD ex Gary Lineker, hounded out of the MOTD chair prematurely over a social media post, begin the first The Rest is Football podcast of the season by celebrating the show’s glamour move to Netflix.
Lineker’s screeched exultation at the start of the broadcast brought hysterical cheers from co-hosts Alan Shearer and Micah Richards, both of whom frothed like schoolboys over miniature clapperboard mementos bearing the Netflix moniker.
If it looks and sounds like a dig at the BBC etcetera, though Lineker might deny this, the whiff of betrayal grew in the presence of Shearer, who was the subject of a classic pre-season row suggesting his reduced MOTD schedule this term was the result of his deteriorating relationship with BBC head of sport and Lineker “nemesis” Alex Kay-Jelski.
Fake news said Shearer, claiming he was simply reclaiming his weekends. Righto Al, we believe you. Not sure MOTD anchor Mark “Chappers” Chapman concurred. “We are all smiles here,” Chapman said ironically at the head of Saturday’s show.
