FA ready to sever ties with pundit over Liverpool slur

The Football Association is expected to cut ties with pundit Craig Mitch over his historic slur against Liverpool as it wards off another potential controversy following the FA Cup’s bet-toview furore.

Mitch, who has an informal arrangement fronting England YouTube coverage, apologised in November over a video in which he stated Liverpudlians “don’t know what a job is”. He also called the city a “s---hole” in the footage filmed several years before he started working with the FA.

The former bedroom video blogger had filmed regular items at Wembley and at St George’s Park for the past year, interviewing players and hosting official coverage.

But insiders say the FA is unlikely to take any risks hiring him again while the governing body remains in the midst of attempting to quell attacks on its credibility in the wake of outrage over the FA Cup being screened by bookmakers on a bet-to-watch basis. The FA announced on Friday it was in talks with the BBC and BT Sport over ensuring that every tie could be made available for live broadcast, which would effectively devalue the rights deal with Bet365 and six other bookmakers in the next round.

The FA says it has yet to decide on its presenting rota for friendlies against Italy and Denmark, but one source said Mitch was unlikely to be used.

Mitch, meanwhile, is pouring his energies into his own self-produced social media content again.

The presenter for BBC MOTDx programme – a spin-off from Match of the Day – apologised immediately after the historic video was shared on social media. “These are not my actual views about a place I have a lot of respect for,” he said. “Sometimes as football fans, we take banter too far. Back then, I did and I apologise for that.”

The FA will be keen to avoid any risk of anger on Merseyside after disputing claims last month that it had decided not to stage England’s final Euro 2020 warm-up game against Romania at Anfield because of Liverpool’s ban on journalists from The Sun.