24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Jeff Stelling's sad reason he quit Soccer Saturday and angry call over sackings
Jeff Stelling explained his reason for leaving Sky Sports' Soccer Saturday at the end of the 2022/23 Premier League season, as well as the anger he felt after hearing his pals were being sacked
Jeff Stelling opened up on how he left Sky Sports ' Soccer Saturday due to the toll it was taking on his physical health. The 70-year-old presenter, who enjoyed a quarter of a century hosting the football score updates show, ultimately parted ways with Sky Sports at the end of the 2022/23 Premier League season.
While fans across the UK were devastated to hear that he was stepping away from the job he had become synonymous with, the choice wasn't one that Stelling made lightly.
Speaking on his reasoning in January last year, the Hartlepool-born presenter told The Guardian: "Even though I'd been there a long time, I felt some of my views weren't considered at all.
"Every week I was fighting a battle. I got tired of fighting and it was making me ill. Eventually, I went to Sky's management and said, 'This is making me unwell. I've got to step away from it.'"
He added: "I'm almost ashamed to say it because my dad worked in a steelworks and would come back from his shift covered in grime and muck and absolutely exhausted.
"He would never have allowed me to say I was shattered after a TV show. But I felt it was making me ill so I had to step away."
Stelling's relationship with Sky had deteriorated, however, prior to his exit after he was left fuming at some major changes to Soccer Saturday – primarily those made in 2020 when a number of his close colleagues were let go from the show.
Sky chiefs decided that it was time for the likes of Matt Le Tissier, Charlie Nicholas and Phil Thompson to move on, and Stelling was ultimately left heartbroken to hear that he would no longer be working alongside them.
In his 'Saturday Afternoon Fever' autobiography, Stelling explained how he was told the news that his colleagues were being let go, while he and Paul Merson were spared. He wrote: "'How can it be the right time?' I blurted out. 'The season gets underway in a couple of weeks and you have sacked three of our team!'
"It's like Man City selling [Kevin] De Bruyne, [Ilkay] Gundogan and [Bernardo] Silva two weeks before kick-off, their entire midfield, their engine room. And we have no one to replace them with.
"Gary insisted it was the right time and that they had people who could step into the biggest of broadcasting shoes and proceeded to reel off a list of people. After each name I made a quick-fire judgement. 'No good.' 'Terminally dull.' 'Doesn't even like football.' 'Oh, for f*** sake.' That gives you the general tone.
"I was devastated, and as Gary listed the names of potential replacements, I knew I had a decision to make too about my future. Matt Roberts, the Soccer Saturday producer, rang.
"He had just been told of the bloodletting and was equally shocked. He was the man who had to rebuild the team – and quickly. Even Sir Alex [Ferguson] would have struggled."
Following the shake-up, Clinton Morrison, Michael Dawson, Sue Smith, Kris Boyd and Tim Sherwood were among those Sky Sports drafted in to revamp Soccer Saturday – but Stelling had his doubts. The presenter initially shared his desire to walk away in 2022, but agreed to stay on for one more season.
Simon Thomas was named as the new host of Soccer Saturday after Stelling's exit, and the Hartlepool United fan has since gone on to work with talkSPORT as a radio host alongside Ally McCoist.
