‘Football Focus is a sufferer of BBC virtue-signalling’: Experts blame present’s demise on ‘light-weight presenters’ employed to suit BBC’s ‘world view’ amid exodus of white male, middle-aged stars

The BBC‘s obsession with ‘virtue signalling’ on TV coupled with ‘lightweight’ hosts and pundits has killed off Football Focus, it was claimed today. 

The corporation has blamed declining viewing figures as it announced it is blowing the whistle on the much-loved show after 52 years.

Presenter Alex Scott has been the focus of much of the criticism following recent features on Ramadan and LGBTQ football issues.

It has been alleged that Ms Scott has felt bruised by BBC inquests into its declining performance, which has seen viewing figures almost halve while she has been at the helm.

Mark Borkowski, one of the UK’s leading PR gurus and brand experts, told the Daily Mail today: ‘The virtue signalling at Football Focus has caught up with the BBC’.

He said the plunging viewing figures ‘shows the BBC were trying to do something for the audience that they didn’t want’. 

‘It was so lightweight and presented by people who didn’t have any personality but fitted the BBC’s world view’, he said.

‘These shows are being shaped by an agenda when all people want is to be entertained. There is this blandness and mediocrity that pervades iconic programmes like Football Focus’.

Celebrated former Football Focus host Bob Wilson today insisted Alex Scott had done ‘be a really good job’ as presenter.

He said the BBC is ‘crazy’ to kill off the show despite Football Focus’s viewing figures collapsing over the past six years.

But Reform leader Nigel Farage told the Mail: ‘It is sad that a once great programme has gone so badly wrong’.

As viewers pined for the days of Bob Wilson, Steve Rider and Ray Stubbs, Mr Farage added: ‘Presenters matter’. 

Every Saturday lunchtime around 1.1million people watched the 45-minute magazine show during Dan Walker’s last year as presenter in 2021 – to under 600,000 today.

In its prime of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, the show was estimated to have had between 5million and 8million viewers.

Alex Scott, a former professional footballer herself, was hired to appeal to younger audiences. 

Former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan wrote in the Daily Mail in 2024 complaining the show had become ‘vacuous, uninspiring and uninformative’.

Slamming some of the choice of features, he asked: ‘When did it become a necessity to be discussing people’s sexuality on a 12 o’clock family football show?’ 

While the BBC blamed social media and ‘changing audience behaviours’ for the decision to axe the show at the end of the season, experts have said that bosses must also accept that choice of hosts lacking personality and ‘dull’ features has put off the audience.

But Mr Borkowski said: ‘If you look at the successful podcasts like the ones done by Lineker’s Goalhanger, or Monday Night Football on Sky. It’s all very laddish. There is a real strength of personality and not following rules that the BBC feels has to apply to its own shows’.

Former BBC pundit Mark Lawrenson, who branded the BBC ‘top of the woke league’ after he was dropped from Match of the Day, said its demise is ‘sad’ but inevitable. ‘You knew at some stage it was going to come to an end,’ he told the Daily Mail last night.

‘There were less and less viewers and there are so many lunchtime games now – it used to be the only thing you could watch. It is sad but we all die at some point’.

Lawro had claimed in 2022 that the BBC dropped him because he was ’65 and a white male’.

The BBC denied his claims but it has been accused of orchestrating mass on-screen departures of white, older men in recent years.

And it is not just men who have felt aggrieved.

Vanessa Feltz accused the BBC ‘endemic ageism’ at the broadcaster claiming that her bosses that had a habit of firing women over 60.

She said BBC Radio 2 had a policy of ‘casual culling and jettisoning’ of older women.

More widely a large number of established presenters have left the BBC – either because they were fired or by choice.

Simon Mayo, Andrew Marr, Peter Crouch, Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel, Dan Walker, Steve Wright, Graham Norton, Shaun Keaveny and Sue Barker all moved on from established TV and radio shows in a matter of months in 2022.

More recently Gregg Wallace and John Torode were fired from MasterChef. 

Scott Mills was sacked by Radio 2 earlier this month. 

Back at Football Focus, Alex Scott, 41, has said she feels the time is right for it to finish.

But she admitted she is filled with ‘so much anxiety and dread’ over the expected ‘toxic’ social media backlash to the BBC’s announcement.

Her Instagram post on the issue has been inundated with trolling.

She said: ‘I would love nothing more then for this moment to be about recognising the iconic show that is closing its doors and celebrating everything it has given and nothing else.

‘We still have a few Saturdays left together, so let’s make sure this show leaves our screens in the best way possible, reflecting the impact it has had on so many people. Shows come and go, but what Football Focus has meant to people, that will stay for ever.

‘I always knew this would be my last season on the show, which the BBC were aware of too. My intention was to move quietly into the next chapter, but sometimes things change.’

Dan Walker, who hosted Football Focus for 12 years, said: ‘I used to watch it every week with my dad and I remember how proud he was when I got the job. It was such a privilege to sit in the chair.’

Bob Wilson hosted the programme for two decades from 1974 to 1994 and is shocked and saddened to see what he regards as an institution scrapped after 52 years. 

Former Arsenal goalkeeper Wilson was scathing about the decision, writing in the Times: ‘It has run successfully for 52 years, so goodness me, why are they getting rid of it?  

‘I have always watched the show when possible and loved the fact that it was being enjoyed by the next generation. Now that I’m 84, it was a huge part of not only my life but also that of many football supporters. It’s sad news.

‘I am really disappointed it has come to this. The BBC has said it will be replaced next season by an interview show about what makes footballers tick. That is crazy. 

‘People want to be told about the big games of the weekend, the issues, the news of the week, discussion, covering a range of clubs and personalities.’

Wilson played 310 times in goal for Arsenal before transitioning to broadcasting when he retired. 

He presented Football Focus while still working as a coach for the Gunners and had high-profile interviews with the likes of Gary Lineker and Sir Alex Ferguson, while also facing challenges such as navigating his way through the unfolding Hillsborough disaster that claimed the lives of 97 Liverpool fans. 

The decision to axe the show was announced on Thursday afternoon and the sentiment online appeared to disagree with Wilson’s view. 

One posted on X: ‘Good – it’s been an awful woke joke for years. #defundtheBBC’