Good riddance to virtue-signalling football pundits

All football and no punditry. The greatest irony of l’affaire Lineker is that we could end up with a much better Match of the Day than we are used to. For many football fans, a highlights show free of the deadening inanities we are usually offered would be ideal.

The BBC’s obsession with punditry rather than actual sport has long been a blight on its coverage.

For most sports fans, the point of a highlights programme is to watch the highlights. Instead, on Match of the Day the football often seems like an interruption to the conversations between Gary Lineker and whoever is alongside him on a given week.

There is a parallel here with political coverage. When a politician makes a speech, more often than not we are told what has been said by a reporter, rather than being given the chance to hear the politician speaking for themselves.

There are contractual limits to the length of the highlights the BBC can show, so the show is padded out with the views of pundits, ex-footballers such as Danny Murphy – who has become a by-word in my household for gormless banality.

Too often it is simply embarrassing to watch – a TV version of dad dancing – and so I usually view a recording of Match of the Day and fast forward through the so-called analysis.

It may well be that this is the last we have seen of Gary Lineker on Match of the Day. There will be wailing from those for whom his right to virtue signal is the most important issue in this somewhat farcical and very British imbroglio.

But a fundamental question that needs to be addressed by the BBC is whether its function is to boost the profiles of virtue-signalling pundits.

In Gary Lineker’s case the ambiguity over this is because he is a freelance. The lesson here is obvious. Those in high-profile presenting roles should be on the staff, so the rules governing their behaviour on social media and such like can be clear and firm.

If that rules out some – even many – of its existing roster who want the freedom of freelancing, so be it. There is not exactly a national shortage of broadcasters.

In any case, Mr Lineker’s undoubted skill as a broadcaster is a much over-rated asset. Who watches Match of the Day because it is presented by Gary Lineker? As it happens, given his holier than thou behaviour, there will surely be some people who specifically won’t watch it if he returns to host it.

Sports coverage generally is far too cosy an affair, dominated by ex-players who have one perspective, but who usually lack even basic analytical skills, and who haven’t got a clue about journalism.

Keep the decent ones who are capable of the type of insightful analysis that gives viewers something fresh – Jermaine Jenas is pretty good on Match of the Day, while the likes of Emma Hayes and Jamie Carragher are outstanding.

But drop the pundits who are there only because they once played the game, and alongside the analysts have serious, trained sports reporters who can move sports broadcasting away from its comfortable back-scratching and give it an edge.

It will certainly be different. And almost certainly better.