As radio football results are axed, it’s... BBC 1 Tradition 0

IT’S been a sporting institution for 70 years and a favourite on Saturdays for fans going home after a match or tuning in for the scores.

But the measured tones of the classified football results have been axed by the BBC. They traditionally followed the 5pm headlines during the Sports Report programme, covering all English and Scottish leagues.

Last Saturday the classified results disappeared from Radio 5 Live on the opening weekend of the Premier League season.

It emerged they were sacrificed to make way for the build-up to the live 5.30pm topflight fixture.

Fans, ex-players, managers and presenters united in a backlash. Des Lynam, 79, who hosted Sports Report from 1970 to 1980 and later Grandstand and Match of the Day, said yesterday: ‘It seems cheap. It feels like change for change’s sake.

‘It was part of the Saturday night routine.

You would get into the car after the game and the scores would come on.’

Mark Lawrenson, 65, former Liverpool defender and BBC pundit, posted: ‘Can’t believe the BBC have dropped the reading of the classified results on Sports Report. Talk about an OG [own goal]!!”

Veteran manager Neil Warnock, 73, said: ‘It’s appalling. I’m disappointed to say the least. It’s something everyone listens to on their way home from matches and what about all the OAPs who listen every week who can’t watch on the television?

‘Some things don’t need to change. I hope another broadcaster takes it up.’

Malcolm Clarke, chairman of the Football Supporters’ Association, told The Daily Telegraph: ‘It is deeply regrettable the BBC has done this. It feels like another of football’s great traditions has gone.’

Only three people have read the classified results since they started in the early 1950s, the most famous being James Alexander Gordon who did it for 40 years until 2013.

Comedian Eric Morecambe, who was a friend of the announcer, would greet him with ‘East Fife 4 Forfar 5’. The result finally happened in 2018 in a Scottish League Cup game, which went to penalties.

A BBC statement said that adding the live 5.30pm match to its coverage meant Sports Report has been condensed into a shorter programme.

Last night, a spokesman for the broadcaster added that there were no plans to reconsider the future of the classified football results.