At the programme's heart is a whirlwind of highlights, in the midst of which you might just catch your semi-useless striker bundling in a goal past the opposition's semi-useless goalkeeper. As Saturday night turns into Sunday morning, those of us whose teams no longer inhabit the sunny uplands of the Premier League are united in the mantra: "Right, that's us, press pause. No, now. Oh hang on, it's gone, press rewind." It is particularly pointless if your team have been involved in a goalless draw, when the 20 seconds of highlights might comprise your semi-useless striker hitting a post, and a centre‑back who has seen better days getting a second yellow card for one in a series of mistimed tackles. There has to be a better way of covering three leagues of football. Maybe the whole thing should migrate to the net because the show as it stands is something of an embarrassment. I feel sorry for the reporters scripting the highlights packages, who might report a goal being scored at the start of the sequence, and then have to find 27 ways of saying it. The Football League Show is the last refuge of "rifled in the rebound", "pounced to restore the Blades' two‑goal cushion", "hauled themselves free of the drop zone with a late equaliser". And, because reporters do not want to repeat a team's name too often, they will talk about the Shrews or the Spireites, occasionally pulling out nicknames that have not been wielded in earnest since the 1940s. I think that extract from a Martin Kelner article sums it up pretty well. The highlights should be moved onto the BBC website, available as soon as possible.
Is it just for us or do they show around an hour of away teams getting off the bus. I guess they're going to replace it with repeats of "On the buses"?
I can't stand the programme but when you look at all the other junk the BBC shows you'd think they could put out a decent football show, do they really need to send Alice Roberts/ Julia Bradbury prancing around the world for shows that hardly any people watch
I love Alice Roberts but do they really have to send her to every country in the world in most of her shows?
i'd be happy to look after her for the next 75 years. we could sit and watch julia bradbury saving us energy by exploring all the places we ought to go to ourselves.
First time poster. BBC aren't 'axing' the show, they didn't renew their rights. Two reasons. The first is the cost. The second is BBC lost the package they held these past few seasons (10 first choice Championship games per season and rights to simulcast the play-off final). Note: BBC swapped the live rights for the play-offs in favour of showing the League Cup semi final (one leg exclusive of each) and final (simulcast). This package is now held by Sky making them the exclusive broadcasters of the Football League and League Cup starting next season. However, the highlights package does remain available. The Football League offered this package to both the BBC and ITV for free - but both didn't take it as it was deemed to expensive (and probably pointless to an extent) to put cameras at all the Football League grounds only for highlights - when another broadcaster is showing everything live. Since Sky also show a highlights programme, they don't need these rights and I doubt ESPN will be wanting them either (Premier League is on their radar). It seems unless BBC or ITV change their mind, there will be no highlights on free-tv next seasons. On a related note, BBC will want to keep Match of the Day as it is more lucrative than the Football League and they need something to entertain 40k Hansen and Linekar weekly eh? Long post, sorry.
Thanks for the explanation, this figure being paid to Alan Hanson of 40K is a nonsense, what does he do to warrant this sort of fee? The BBC have gone mad, as I am sure they can get an equally good pundit for a fraction of the cost.
didnt they used to send a taxi for him to take him from liverpool to london for each show before it moved?
