''Football Focus'' is a

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

magazine programme launched in 1974, broadcast live on

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on Saturday lunchtimes during the football season. The programme, along with '' Final Score'', is a remnant from the former flagship sports show '' Grandstand'' which for decades dominated the BBC One Saturday afternoon TV schedules. Football Focus became a programme in its own right in 2001. The show is now a weekly magazine, with reports from across the country at all levels of English and Scottish football. It previews the weekend's fixtures and provides updates from the early

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

game. Since BBC have the rights to Premier League highlights, ''Football Focus'' also shows the key moments from midweek matches. As of 2021, presenter Alex Scott is joined by two football pundits such as Fara Williams, Martin Keown, Dion Dublin, Nedum Onuoha, Shay Given, Ellen White, Stephen Warnock and Rachel Brown-Finnis. Other pundits to have appeared include Mark Lawrenson, Jermaine Jenas, and Micah Richards. '' Match of the Day'' commentators, including Steve Wilson, Guy Mowbray, Jonathan Pearce, and Simon Brotherton often check-in with game previews from the stadiums.

History

For several years up to 1974, '' Grandstand'' aired a slot called "Football Preview", previewing the day's matches and in 1974 it was evolved into ''Football Focus'' which continued to be part of ''Grandstand'' and Focus was the first item of the programme. From 1988 to 1992, it was reduced to FA Cup weekends due to ITV having exclusive

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

rights and was simply billed in the schedules as ''Football''. It returned to a weekly broadcast from August 1992 when the BBC won the

highlights rights and the ''Football Focus'' brand was restored. In August 2001, ''Focus'' became a stand-alone show. In 2009 Dan Walker became the main host, and was in the hot seat when the show moved to the MediaCityUK complex in

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, Greater Manchester. In 2021, former England and Arsenal right-back Alex Scott became the first full-time female host of the show, presenting her first show on 14 August. She replaced Dan Walker who had presented the show for the previous twelve years.

Presenters

* pre-1974: – First presenter Sam Leitch * 1974–1994: Bob Wilson (departed to join ITV as its main football presenter) * 1994–1996: Steve Rider (host of ''Focus'' as part of his duties as presenter of '' Grandstand'') * 1996–1999: Gary Lineker (previously a pundit before he started to present ''Focus'', went on to front '' Match of the Day'') * 1999–2004: Ray Stubbs (left to present '' Final Score'' on Saturday afternoons, left BBC in 2009 to move to

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

) * 2004–2009: Manish Bhasin (left to become presenter of '' The Football League Show'') * 2009–2021: Dan Walker * 2021– : Alex Scott

Guest presenters

* 2005: Mark Pougatch * 2006:

Celina Hinchcliffe Celina Alexandra Hinchcliffe (born 21 March 1976 in Windsor, Berkshire, Windsor, Berkshire) is an English television sports broadcaster. She has worked for BBC, Sky News and ITV (TV network), ITV. Early life Hinchcliffe is the daughter of televi ...

* 2007, 2008: Jake Humphrey (presented during 2007 Ashes and Cricket World Cup. Also was main host during Euro 2008 ''Football Focus'') * 2014: Mark Chapman (presented a World Cup special edition) * 2016, 2021: Eilidh Barbour (presented during 2016 Olympics while Dan Walker was in Rio, she also presented in late 2021) * 2018: Seema Jaswal (one episode) * 2020: Kelly Somers as stand in when Alex Scott is unavailable.

Theme song

The theme song for the programme is different for each new season. For the 2002–03 season it was "Backaround" by Elevator Suite. The 2003–04 season featured a cover of the

Stevie Nicks Stephanie Lynn Nicks (born May 26, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter, known for her work with the band Fleetwood Mac and as a solo artist. After starting her career as a duo with her then-boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham, releasing the album ...

track "Stand Back" by Linus Loves featuring Sam Obernik. For the 2007–08 season it was "Kill The Director" by

The Wombats The Wombats are an English indie rock band formed in Liverpool in 2003, consisting of Matthew Murphy (lead vocals, guitar, keyboards), Tord Øverland Knudsen (bass, backing vocals, keyboards), and Dan Haggis (drums, backing vocals, keyboards). ...

and for the 2009–10 season it was "Jetstream" by Doves, from the album '' Kingdom of Rust''. For the 2012–13 season it was "Undegpedwar" by Y Niwl from the self-titled album, and in a break with tradition continued as the theme for 2013–14. For the 2023–24 season, "Seventeen Going Under" by Sam Fender became the new theme song.

Studio

The programme is broadcast from BBC Sport's headquarters and main studios in MediaCityUK in

, although some episodes are broadcast on location, from football grounds around the country. The studio is located at the dock10 studios facility. Ahead of the

2019–20 Premier League The 2019–20 Premier League was the 28th season of the Premier League, the top English professional association football, football league, since its establishment in 1992, and the 121st season of top-flight English football overall. The season ...

season,

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC BBC Television, television, BBC Radio, radio and BBC Online, online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadc ...

upgraded the studio that '' Match of the Day'', '' Match of the Day 2'', ''Football Focus'', and '' Final Score'' broadcasts from. The facility uses a " 4K UHD ready virtual reality studio." It uses Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4 rendering technology.

Other versions

A version of the programme focusing on world football airs on '' BBC World News''.

References

External links

* {{BBC programme BBC One original programming BBC Sport 2001 British television series debuts 2000s British sports television series 2010s British sports television series 2020s British sports television series Premier League on television British English-language television shows