Iconic football TV show is AXED – and there’s just 10 episodes left after 30 years on screen

Soccer AM is set to be shelved after almost 30 years as part of a drastic Sky Sports shake-up.

Staff were reportedly told on Tuesday that the show was to wrap up at the end of the current season. 

The Sun claim that bosses have made the decision to axe the popular Saturday morning show, with 10 episodes left before it is taken off air. 

A source told the Sun that morale is ‘at an all time low’ following the ‘bombshell’ announcement which has left staff, who are now facing redunancy in May, ‘raging’. 

Saturday Social, which previously aired before Soccer AM, is reportedly going to fill the vacant slot from next season with an aim of targeting younger viewers.

Soccer AM has proven to be a huge hit for Sky since it first hit screens in 1995. 

The 90-minute football comedy show include a variety of segments as well as sitdowns with some of the game’s biggest players and managers. 

Russ Williams and Helen Chamberlain were the original hosts, before Tim Lovejoy replaced Williams two years in. 

Lovejoy, who hosted it through until 2007 before being succeeded by Andy Goldstein, and later Max Rushden, would regularly cause havoc in one of the many segments he came up with.

At one stage he was offering £5 to any fan who turned up at a match with a ‘Lovejoy is a Legend’ banner – but that was soon abandoned as banners appeared at multiple games and his costs were piling up. 

The car park game, fans of the week, and the Soccerette – a feature where a young female modelled a kit of her team – were among the most notable segments. 

More recent iterations of the show have been hosted by John Fendley, who got involved in 2015 when Rushden left, and former Hull City and Wigan Athletic midfielder Jimmy Bullard, who started in 2017. 

Sky Sports’ schedule has been subject to drastic change in recent years, with shake-ups to their presenters or shows not uncommon.

Back in 2020 the decision was made to scrap Sunday Supplement, a morning debate show with newspaper journalists about football’s biggest stories.

Soon after Goals on Sunday, a highlights show with Ben Shephard and Chris Kamara, and The Debate, were shelved.

More to follow.