A new look for the BBC's Match of the Day – but will the show be any different?

New York Times

13 hours ago

Match of the Day, the BBC's flagship football highlights programme, will have a different look when it airs at 10.20pm BST on Saturday to show action from the first six matches of the 2025-26 Premier League season.
For the first time since 1999, Gary Lineker, the former England striker, will not be its permanent host after his exit from the UK's leading public broadcaster in May.
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Instead of appointing one person to replace Lineker, the BBC instead opted to share the role between three experienced sports presenters: Mark Chapman, Gabby Logan and Kelly Cates.
Chapman, 51, will host the kick-off show this weekend, alongside Alan Shearer, the former Newcastle United and England striker, and Wayne Rooney, a Manchester United and England great, as expert analysts. Speaking at the launch event in London on Thursday night, Chapman quipped that all he'll be thinking about before going live on Saturday evening is: 'Don't f**k it up.'
Match of the Day has been running on British television since 1964, but why has it been given a new look now — and will the show be any different this season?
The Athletic answers the key questions…
Gabby Logan, 52, is a familiar face on the free-to-air broadcaster, having spent more than 15 years at the BBC and hosted multiple shows, including filling in occasionally for Lineker on Match of the Day.
A former international rhythmic gymnast, the daughter of Leeds United and Wales footballer Terry Yorath has been an integral part of the BBC's coverage of World Cups, Olympics and other major sporting events. Logan also fronts Amazon Prime's coverage of the Champions League in the UK and has her own podcast.
Mark Chapman is another BBC stalwart, having started on Radio 1 reading the sports news. He can also be heard on BBC 5 Live Sport radio and previously hosted Match of the Day 2 on Sunday nights during the Premier League season, showing that day's match action, as well as The Athletic FC podcast. He is also versatile across other sports, covering golf majors and rugby league for the BBC.
Chapman also works for Sky Sports and, from this season, will continue to front top-flight games for that subscription service.
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Kelly Cates, 49, will also juggle her Match of the Day duties and presenting on BBC 5 Live with working for Sky Sports this season, continuing her long association with the Premier League's primary rights holder in the UK. The daughter of Liverpool and Scotland icon Sir Kenny Dalglish, Cates is regarded as one of the best broadcasters in the industry, being named presenter of the year at this year's British Journalism Awards.
Chapman is presenting this Saturday's show, with Logan fronting Sunday evening's Match of the Day, which will have highlights of the three Premier League matches played that day. Cates will make her debut next weekend.
The three hosts will present an equal number of shows, according to the BBC, and it will largely depend on schedules when it comes to who is available for which dates.
'We all have other things that we do within BBC Sport and across football and other sports, and it was exciting to us that we got to continue doing the things that we're very passionate about and also that feed into the jobs that we do now,' Logan said at the launch event.
'We're not territorial at all about how that's going to work because we're all doing other exciting things within sports. There's not going to be a pattern in it at all.'
As well as being given an equal number of shows, the three presenters are being paid equally when it comes to hosting Match of the Day.
The BBC also has rights to the FA Cup, the men's World Cup next year, the women's World Cup in 2027, and the men's Euros in 2028. As it stands, a frontrunner to host the BBC's coverage of the World Cup final next July is yet to emerge, nor has a decision been made as to who that will be.
Although it can sometimes be the case when a new host takes over a long-running TV programme, the BBC hasn't conducted any rehearsals with its new presenters ahead of Saturday night's first show.
As far as the programme as a spectacle goes, no. The show will largely look the same, albeit with someone different in the host's chair. The iconic theme tune will remain, too.
The hope is that Cates, Logan and Chapman, with their journalistic backgrounds, will be able to identify what their audience is talking about following the day's matches, whether it's the biggest moment from the slate of games or people complaining about the price of beer at Everton's new stadium, and bring it to the screen.
It will still follow the same format, broadcasting the best of Saturday's top-flight fixtures (and, this week, Friday night's game between Liverpool and Bournemouth), followed by pundits analysing each match. Where relevant, the BBC will look to incorporate its journalists on the show, too — especially if there is a news angle to be discussed.
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Sunday night's edition, formerly called Match of the Day 2, is now also simply Match of the Day, unifying the two shows under one name.
Beginning on Saturday night, as part of its deal with the Premier League that kicks in this season, the BBC will have every goal from every Premier League game that day available on iPlayer, the BBC Sport website and its app from 8pm, two hours ahead of Match of the Day coming on air.
Just a little, yes.
Lineker — who had long been the BBC's marquee football presenter and highest-paid employee, earning £1.35million a year — was widely respected for his abilities as a presenter but the BBC judged some of his comments on social media had breached its policies. In March 2023, he was stood down from presenting an episode of Match of the Day, prompting a mass walkout of the BBC's presenters and pundits over the network that weekend.
The former editor-in-chief of The Athletic, Alex Kay-Jelski, succeeded Barbara Slater as the BBC's director of sport in the summer of 2024.
The BBC then announced in November that Lineker would be stepping down from Match of the Day but would stay on to present its FA Cup and 2026 FIFA World Cup coverage. Attention quickly turned to who would be hired to replace him on arguably the biggest football show in the UK, but Lineker's own future at the corporation was very much in the balance: the BBC drew up plans for if his deal was renewed beyond 2024-25, while also having a direction of where they wanted to go if he left.
Then, last May, Lineker 'apologised unreservedly' after being heavily criticised for sharing a social media post that included a rat emoji.
The post Lineker shared on Instagram, which he subsequently deleted, was by the group Palestine Lobby. The video's caption was 'Zionism explained in two minutes' and it had an illustration of a rat to accompany it. A rat has often been used as an antisemitic insult.
Following this, the BBC announced that Lineker would be leaving the corporation altogether at the end of the 2024-25 season.
'I very much regret these references,' Lineker said in a statement. 'I would never knowingly share anything antisemitic. It goes against everything I believe in.'
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