Why Saturday afternoons will not be the same as BBC score own goal - Stuart Rayner

The BBC’s decision to stop reading the classified football results on Five Live each Saturday has gone down like a lead balloon, and the complaints have all followed the same theme.

“It has been going for 50 to 60 years so why change it?” asked Des Lynam, who knows what a national institution looks like thanks to the mirrors in his house. “It feels like change for change’s sake. I guess traditions come and go but I know that the older people will miss it greatly. It was part of the Saturday night routine. You would get into the car after the game and the scores would come on.”

Tradition matters in historic English football.

Sometimes, though, traditions do have to end, or at least modify. This season Five Live has bought the rights to the Saturday 5.30pm Premier League game, meaning the five o’clock Sports Report can be no more than a quick run-through. Six-o-six has had to move from 6.06pm.

Bradford City manager Mark Hughes celebrates at full time after a thrilling League Cup win over Hull City on Tuesday night.   Picture Bruce RollinsonBradford City manager Mark Hughes celebrates at full time after a thrilling League Cup win over Hull City on Tuesday night.   Picture Bruce Rollinson
Bradford City manager Mark Hughes celebrates at full time after a thrilling League Cup win over Hull City on Tuesday night. Picture Bruce Rollinson
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In this landscape, running through the results of every division takes valuable time but they could just have been moved a bit later.

More than the loss of another tradition, this move – which the Beeb said last night they would not reverse despite the backlash – feels like another lost skirmish in the battle to keep the whole football pyramid relevant, not just the pointy bit.

The BBC still have reporters across the Premier and Football League on a Saturday and still provide updates on other games featuring the 92 but the classifieds went deeper. Outside of FA Cup weekends, clubs like York City will no longer exist in that world.

It feels like just another step in the ongoing focus on an increasingly small clutch of clubs.

Leeds United's Patrick Bamford  is challenged by Wolves'  Raya Ait-Nouri. Picture: Simon HulmeLeeds United's Patrick Bamford  is challenged by Wolves'  Raya Ait-Nouri. Picture: Simon Hulme
Leeds United's Patrick Bamford is challenged by Wolves' Raya Ait-Nouri. Picture: Simon Hulme
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One wonders if in a couple of years those reporters and updates will be limited to the top two divisions, or top one.

It is not even that large sections of the media are more Premier League-centric – in too many quarters it is increasingly all about the Big Six, with the rest an after-thought.

Financial realities are putting media organisations under increasing pressure to abandon niche interests but the nation’s public service broadcaster should be above that. Telling everyone the full-time scores in Conference North, Welsh Premier League and Scottish Division Two is doing their job properly.

Big clubs have always, will always and should always get more coverage, but smaller ones cannot be ignored completely.

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To be at Bradford City’s League Cup tie against Hull City on Tuesday was a refreshing example of what football is about.

With the game live on Sky during a cost of living crisis, there were only 5,394 fans and 1,479 were in the away section. That would be a good crowd for most League Two games but Valley Parade usually draws nearer four times that.

But the noise as the Bantams closed in on victory over Championship opposition was not the noise of 4,000 people. No one could listen to the passion pouring off the terraces and tell you with a straight face Bradford do not matter, just as no one could stand on the terraces or sit in a non-league clubhouse, feeling the sense of community, and say football at that level is unimportant.

The beauty of my job is that the 106 games I covered from stadia for The Yorkshire Post last season straddled World Cup qualifiers to the Premier League, Football League and even a couple of matches involving non-league sides. Take away any of those elements, and it would just not be as good.

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Being from a town – Scarborough – where top-flight football was in every sense a long way away in my childhood (and now even league football is) forces a greater appreciation for football in its entirety.

The first games I watched (probably more half-watched) were local league matches my father refereed.

This is not a Premier League-bashing exercise.

It remains the most entertaining league in the world and I for one am still a fan.

But more people are turning against it, put off by the greed-is-good attitude or just priced out by it, the ever-increasing distance between players and supporters and the totally unpredictable and too often inconsiderate kick-off times. Many are looking to non-league, preferring the greater camaraderie and chance to share a pint with players afterwards. They need to be catered for too. All levels rely on the coverage that can attract sponsors.

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Jeff Stelling, president of Hartlepool United, cracking jokes about “dancing in the streets of Total Network Solutions” was a godsend for a club with crowds in the hundreds before they became The New Saints.

With a World Cup closing off a big chunk of the Premier League and Championship season, 2022 is an important year for less-heralded clubs to make hay.

That Football League highlights have been rescued from obscure satellite channel Quest onto terrestrial television is a good thing, tempered by the fact ITV show them so late – they are on ITV 4 at 9pm, so it is not that they cannot be turned around sooner.

As we seem to say a lot when they go to the wall but not enough before they do, these are community institutions which need protecting.

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