Simon Jordan fears Match of The Day risks losing its ‘value’ when it enters its post-Gary Lineker era.
It has now been confirmed the former England striker will step down as host of the show at the end of the season having been the face of the programme for 25 years.
He will continue to host coverage of the FA Cup in the 2025/26 season and the World Cup in 2026 on the BBC.
Choosing the right successor for Lineker will be vital, and occasional Match of The Day pundit Danny Murphy has already told talkSPORT who should take his place.
But talkSPORT’s Jordan has another concern for the programme, away from who becomes the next host.
Speaking about Lineker stepping down on Tuesday’s White and Jordan show, the former Crystal Palace owner said: “My concern is that they do to Match of the Day what they’ve managed to do to Football Focus.
“That is turn it into a series of must-haves rather than actual real content worth having, denigrating the show, and turning it into an audience that’s half the value they had once before.”
Football Focus’ ratings have reportedly suffered in recent years, with the programme said to have lost a third of its viewers in four years.
Dan Walker hosted the show from 2009 to 2021 and was replaced by former England Women’s star Alex Scott.
But while Jordan hopes Match of The Day doesn’t go down that route now it will be having a re-brand, he isn’t concerned about Lineker in particular being a big miss.
Asked on his take on his departure, he said: “I don’t really care. I don’t find Gary Lineker particularly offensive in any shape or form. I think he’s inoffensive. I don’t agree with a lot of his opinions.
“I think some of the things he said about experiencing racism and his ridiculous observations of the hypocrisy of going to Qatar whilst condemning it are slightly ludicrous.
“But as a presenter of Match of the Day, I don’t tune in to Match of the Day to listen to Gary Lineker.
“I tune in to Match of the Day because I think it’s an iconic show.”
And Jordan thinks the Premier League highlights programme still has plenty of life left in it 60 years since it began.
“I think it’s a show that still has a very much a big space,” he said.
“I think it was so important to the creation of the Premier League because, without the highlights package that Match the Day produced for terrestrial TV, Sky would have never done the deal in the first place.
“So I think there’s a lot of capital in there. I know people consume football differently and they watch it differently than they’ve ever done before through devices and all different means.
“But I think it’s still a very valuable proposition.”
You can see the current odds for the favourites for Gary Lineker‘s Match of The Day replacement here.
