The credits for the new Match of the Day are in a comic-book style. Your screen bursts with fruit machine cherries when Bournemouth pop up, and freezes when Cole Palmer appears. Erling Haaland sits in the lotus pose under a blue moon. The most unlikely moment is saved until the title card appears, however, with the camera disappearing inside the bottom of the Premier League trophy, down a silver tunnel and out, directly, into Mark Chapman’s face.
Chapman is a long-time BBC Sport anchor and the main man on Radio 5 Live. He is hardly an unknown quantity, but here he had been grabbed by a stylist and given a vaguely modish air with designer stubble and a cream overshirt hanging loosely off his shoulders. One of three presenters charged with taking the BBC’s venerable football highlights show out of the Gary Lineker era, he has to strike a balance between being familiar and fresh. He did so by making a dad joke about it; that’s MotD heritage.
“You may have seen and heard that there is a big change to the show this season”, Chapman said as we emerged from the trophy tunnel. “And that is … Wayne Rooney has joined us a regular pundit.” Pause for laughter. “Some things don’t change, Alan Shearer is still here”, he went on as Rooney audibly chuckled in the background.
With Match of the Day there’s never any time to dwell and as soon as Chapman had introduced himself and his colleagues in their ribbed polo shirts we were into the action. We began at Sunderland and their impressive opening win against West Ham, with Rooney detailing the shift in offensive width that opened up the game. “I actually got one of my only wins against them”, said the former Plymouth boss of the Black Cats. “Got that in early, well done”, noted Chapman.
From there it was City and some hyperbole over a new signing (an opening day tendency as old as time): “Almost the perfect midfield performance”, said Shearer of Tijjani Reijnders. At Spurs v Burnley we watched Martin Dubravka become the first goalkeeper to cough up a corner for holding the ball longer than eight seconds. The debate on Brighton v Fulham began with penalty decisions – perhaps the most consistent fascination of MotD producers over the past decade. There was also an advert for an interview elsewhere on the BBC with, well, Rooney. “Blimey, you’re taking over”, said Chapman.
Rooney had been the main attraction at a football-themed bar in Westfield, Shepherd’s Bush, on Thursday night as the BBC launched their new season’s coverage in front of an audience of distracted influencers. This year he will not only be on MotD and interviewed elsewhere, he will also have his own twice-weekly podcast which, in the words of the BBC, will see him “diving into the football debates that are dominating your algorithm”. When Rooney came up on stage to talk about it, he was obscured by a projection of his own face and the show was described as “not intentionally funny, just funny”. So stay tuned on that one.
The England and Manchester United icon shows signs of promise as a pundit. He’s articulate, and on Saturday night was able to conjure up the right word when you could see he was looking for it. He’s tactically insightful and has a wealth of experience to draw from too, obviously, able here to compare the current situation of Alexander Isak to the time he handed in a transfer request at Old Trafford. Most intriguingly he clearly preserves that bite that marked him out as a player, and strong opinions are likely to be forthcoming.
Those hoping to dominate any algorithms will be excited at this prospect, but it also speaks to a tension that exists between the BBC’s new strategy and a 62-year-old show that’s an icon of TV. The BBC’s sports coverage has always been predictable, consistent and middle of the road. It’s part of what made the nation able to sit and watch it together (something that’s still true, with BBC coverage of the Lionesses’ Euros win last month the most watched broadcast in the UK this year). It is not, traditionally at least, a home for the deliberately provocative form of digital punditry known as ‘hot takes’.
On the other hand, it’s hard to hide from the fact that the average viewer of BBC One is in their 60s, while less than half of 16 to 24 year olds watch broadcast TV. The BBC has a need to serve those audiences and clearly their strategy for the new season is designed with them in mind. “We’re not just covering the games, we’re following the fans”, is the line. The many people who build their lives around their coverage will hope it doesn’t shift too much. Certainly listening to Don Hutchison on 5 Live on Friday night was as informed an introduction to the season as you are likely to hear, even if it did go on a bit.
“You could say the more things change, the more they stay the same”, was Chapman’s take as he signed off the first show of the season, but there is one change that could prove unexpectedly disruptive. With presenters and suits alike trying to tread an impossibly fine line between reliability and novelty, the BBC has managed this season to bring forward the time it can show Premier League highlights online. You can now watch the goals from 8pm on a Saturday night, bringing an end to years of frustration around antiquated embargoes. At the same time, it also means you can have worked through all the action hours before the BBC’s flagship show has even gone on air. Funny old game, as they used to say.
