Stelling’s towering presence an impossible act to follow

TO a generation of football couch potatoes, it’s like ravens deserting the Tower of London.

Jeff Stelling’s announcement that he is to step down as host of our tickertape ‘fix’ Soccer Saturday at the end of the season is not just a hammerblow for Sky Sports. For armchair fans, it feels like Saturday afternoon has been cancelled.

“I have loved doing it, and I can’t imagine not doing it,” said Stelling, right, who has anchored the show for 27 years. “But I wanted to go out while I was still sharp, and it is time to let somebody else have a go at what is the best job in the world.”

When he revealed his decision on air, Stelling was given a standing ovation by his panel in the studio.

“I just wanted to make it as matter-of-fact as possible and get on with it,” he said. “There are still seven months of the season to go, so it’s business as usual.”

His resignation has the air of a full stop – like Richie Benaud signing off on Channel 4 at the Ashes denouement in 2005, or Humphrey Bogart evacuating Ingrid Bergman from Casablanca. Whoever takes over from a broadcast legend has an impossible act to follow. Stelling, 66, has turned many of his panel, and the reporters on location at matches, into cult stars, presiding over countless moments of TV gold. Chris Kamara’s baffled look at Fratton Park, when Stelling informed him Portsmouth’s Anthony Vanden Borre had been sent off – and the anchorman in the studio knew before the touchline messenger – was one in a bullion.

And when his beloved Hartlepool were relegated out of the Football League with Stelling presenting in blue and white stripes beneath his waistcoat, he laid bare the emotions every supporter goes through. Unbelievable, Jeff.