New Match of the Day presenters Gabby Logan, Kelly Cates and Mark Chapman, who are taking over following Gary Lineker’s tenure, want to make it all about the football when the show starts
Match of The Day’s new hosts are promising they won’t make the show all about them.
Gabby Logan, Kelly Cates and Mark Chapman don’t want to be the centre of attention like axed Gary Lineker was. Instead, they want to make it all about the football when they kick things off this week.
Gabby, 52, said: “The focus is only on us because Gary’s leaving, and he’s such a huge name. We’re nowhere near the most important people on the show. The most important thing is the football, then it’s the pundits and what they think about it and we’re there to bring it all together.”
Kelly, 49, added: “I didn’t think there would be as much focus as there has been. I thought, probably very naively, that Gary would take it all as the outgoing person. I didn’t realise people would be as interested as they are.”
The trio are taking over after Gary, 64, quit the BBC over a controversial post on social media. And the new presenters insist that they won’t suffer a similar gaffe as they’re cautious about what they put online.
Kelly said: “I don’t think I’ve ever really weighed in that much on anything that isn’t either about football or something quite silly. That’s not how I’ve ever used social media.”
Gabby added: “I’ve been conducting myself on social media while working at the BBC for nearly two decades, so it doesn’t change anything.
“The broadcaster is probably under the most scrutiny of any in the country because of the way it’s funded and because it’s accountable to the public. That’s how it should be. We strive to have the highest standards. Hopefully, we’ll just get on with our jobs.”
Speaking earlier this year, Lineker, 64, said he believed the BBC wanted him to leave the programme, which he had anchored since 1999.
Asked why he was ending his tenure as host, he replied: “Well, perhaps they want me to leave. There was the sense of that.” He announced last November that he would leave the football show at the end of the last Premier League season.
Read the full interview in the new issue of Radio Times.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
