Soccer Saturday
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Soccer Saturday | |
|---|---|
 Host Jeff Stelling |
|
| Genre | Football news |
| Running time | 300 minutes |
| Starring | Jeff Stelling |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| Original channel | Sky Sports |
| Original run | 1992– |
| Official website | |
| IMDb profile | |
Gillette Soccer Saturday is a television programme broadcast on Sky Sports in the United Kingdom during the football season.
Soccer Saturday grew out of Sports Saturday, which started in 1992 hosted by Paul Dempsey. Current host Jeff Stelling joined the programme in 1994 and became its sole presenter a year later, the programme's name changing in 1998. It has been sponsored for many years by Gillette.
Starting at mid-day and lasting up to six hours in total, Stelling hosts a panel of four pundits every week who debate the games coming up and the current issues in the sport. When the games kick off the pundits watch a game each, usually from the FA Premier League or FA Cup, and report on significant incidents as they progress. These are augmented by a number of reporters at grounds across the country, some in vision, while Stelling provides other latest scores. After the games finish the studio pundits discuss the games they have been watching in between post-match interviews. Regular pundits include Frank McLintock, Charlie Nicholas, Alan McInally, Phil Thompson, Matthew Le Tissier, Alan Smith, Paul Merson and Chris Kamara, who usually reports back from matches in vision and is known for becoming highly excitable; his "unbelievable" catchphrase being a firm favourite amongst the show's viewers. Rodney Marsh was a regular pundit, known for his argumentative nature, until leaving Sky Sports in early 2005 after a poor taste joke referencing the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami[1]. The late George Best was also a regular until leaving in 2004 to fight alcohol problems.
The programme is also broadcast when there are a number of midweek games, usually in the UEFA Champions League, in which case it is known as Soccer Special, often hosted by Rob McCaffrey as Jeff Stelling now hosts some of Sky's live midweek matches.
