New intro, new graphics, new presenters… same old Match of the Day.
Gary Lineker’s departure over the summer was supposed to herald a new era for the BBC’s flagship football show but what we really learned from its first renewal on Saturday night was that no one is bigger than MOTD.
Lineker was sacked over a controversial social media post that featured an anti-semitic trope. It was an inadvertent insult, and one he apologised for, but the blunder was the final straw in a long-running saga over whether a BBC presenter should be allowed to be so political.
His replacements therefore would have to be squeaky clean and Mark Chapman, Kelly Cates and Gabby Logan in rotation represent exactly that.
Giving “Chappers” the first start of the season was obvious too. He is the ultimate safe pair of hands, a BBC lifer who started at the corporation in 1996. Lineker was still doing a comedy turn on They Think It’s All Over while Chapman was cutting his teeth.
Chapman was keen to signal over the summer that this would not be some great Match of the Day revolution, at least not in the late-night televisual version of it.
“If you’re wanting a lot of change I suppose you’re going to be a bit disappointed by it,” Chapman said, recognising that the audience for the Saturday night show is staunch, as are the ratings, and change would not go down well.
The highlights it includes are available on the BBC Sport app from 8pm, more than two hours before it airs, but Match of the Day on BBC One is not for people who spend Saturday nights on the BBC Sport app. It’s for the dwindling numbers of linear TV viewers.
Is £800k on Wayne Rooney money well spent?
The real change is on the other sofa next to stalwart Alan Shearer, where former England captain Wayne Rooney took pride of place. If you consume any BBC football content this season, you will almost certainly be exposed to some form of Rooney. Having paid him a reported £800,000 for a twice-weekly podcast, the first big interview with Kelly Somers and various punditry slots, the BBC is keen to get its money’s worth.
But Rooney is not a skilled pundit. He is an interesting character certainly, but struggles to communicate in a way that overlays his storied career on the modern game. It might explain why his managerial career from Derby to Plymouth via DC United and Birmingham City has gone so badly.
Fortunately, Chapman’s decades of journalistic experience enable him to get Rooney out of empty platitudes and into real insight, ably assisted by Shearer, who was keen to draw parallels between the Alexander Isak rigmarole and Rooney’s own dalliances with leaving Manchester United. It wasn’t quite pulling teeth, but it was certainly hard work for the pair of veterans to elicit some perceptive comment from him.
"You just can't do that when you've got a three-year contract."
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) August 16, 2025
Alan Shearer and Wayne Rooney aren't impressed with Alexander Isak's handling of his situation. pic.twitter.com/iWEb8aOE3Y
It’s nuanced, but that is where the quiet revolution on MOTD has taken place: Chapman’s forensic style is a notable departure from Lineker’s presenting, which was increasingly self-referential. You only have to look at his recent interview with Marcus Rashford to see his inability to cut to the chase with a fellow pro.
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But it is largely evolution not revolution, with tarted up graphics and a new opening montage, and a few little nods to the past. “You may have seen and heard that there is a big change to the show this season,” Chapman said at the opener – before introducing Wayne Rooney. Lineker’s name never passed anyone’s lips.
The football of course is the same, the cast of commentators still strong and the analysis still slowly moving towards the 21st century style, with mentions of xG and duels won, a language that Rooney and Shearer still don’t quite speak fluently.
Chappers signed off by saying that “the more things change, the more things stay the same”, a typical understatement of his own ability. Not loads has changed, but enough that not many will come away thinking “gosh, I miss Gary Lineker”.
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