Key Takeaways
- BBC will end Football Focus when this season finishes after 25 years on air.
- Bosses say viewers now watch goals and news on phones hours before the show starts.
- Host Alex Scott admits the programme feels “late” in a world of instant social media updates.
Football Focus will broadcast for the last time in May, bringing down the curtain on a show that has been part of Kenyan and UK Saturday routines since the late 1990s. The BBC says the decision is part of wider cost cuts and a move to follow audiences online.
When the programme began, most fans waited for television to see team news, interviews and short highlights. Today, line-ups drop on apps, clips circle on TikTok and debates rage on X (Twitter) long before the familiar theme tune plays at lunchtime.
Alex Scott, who presents the current series, told reporters that by the time the cameras roll, “you have already seen it, debated it and lived it.” Viewing figures have slid year on year while the BBC’s own digital clips and podcasts draw millions of hits.
The National Broadcaster’s sports chief, Alex Kay-Jelski, praised the programme for “telling the game’s stories for generations,” but said the axe fell because “audiences now engage with football differently.” Staff will move to other outlets such as Match of the Day and online video teams.
Fans have shared mixed feelings on social media. Older viewers mourn a childhood ritual; younger followers shrug, saying they catch the same content in seconds on their “magic witch portals” – the smartphones that never leave their palms.
Football Focus is the latest traditional show to feel the squeeze. ITV’s The Premiership ended in 2004, and BT Sport’s Goals Express closed in 2021. Analysts predict more studio formats will merge with short-form digital channels as clubs and leagues produce their own behind-the-scenes footage.
For now, the remaining episodes will celebrate classic moments: Michael Essien’s crunching volleys, Kenyan star Victor Wanyama’s Premier League rise, and the famous pitch-side chats that once set up the weekend’s big matches. When the final credits roll, the programme will join a long list of fondly remembered but digitally outpaced football shows.
