Former presenter Jeff Stelling reveals why he no longer watches Sky Sports Soccer Saturday

Former presenter Jeff Stelling reveals why he no longer watches Sky Sports Soccer Saturday, of which he had a 25-year tenure as host.

He says that his choice to stop watching the show stems from his desire to avoid criticising the program, after he concluded his tenure on the Sky Sports show at the end of the 2022/23 season.

His departure came three years after the dismissal of his long-time colleagues Phil Thompson, Charlie Nicholas, and Matt Le Tissier.

Simon Thomas has since taken over in his place, while the panel has been rotated with the likes of Paul Merson, Michael Dawson, Clinton Morrison, Kris Boyd, Sue Smith, and others.

Legend of Soccer Saturday, Jeff Stelling explains why Chris Kamara has always been so loved!

⚽️ w/ @williamHillIre.

Jeff will be signing copies of his memoir, Saturday Afternoon Fever in Easons O’Connell Street on Saturday at 12pm ➡️ https://t.co/ctihmDtGhU pic.twitter.com/VVZaFKaeZ1

— Off The Ball (@offtheball) November 15, 2024

Stelling, who is currently presenter on talkSPORT these days, and runs the YouTube channel ‘Football’s Greatest,’ has spoke about the feedback he receives from the public regarding Soccer Saturday, before elaborating on his reasons for no longer watching the program.

“In the time since I have left Sky I still hear the cries of ‘Un-believable Jeff!’ from passers-by and black-cab drivers,” he writes in his autobiography Saturday Afternoon Fever. “But often it is now accompanied with ‘It isn’t the same anymore, Jeff’. That saddens me as that was never my intention when I left Soccer Saturday.

“I won’t lie. I no longer watch the show that was my life for almost three decades. Not because I feel any ill-will. Just the opposite. I have many friends working on the programme and I am desperate for it to succeed.

“But if I watched, I know that as an opinionated little so-and-so I would sit and criticise which would benefit no one. Instead, I would rather celebrate nearly thirty years of doing the best job in the world.

“I am lucky that so many people believe there is life in this old dog yet and have offered me projects. Not many people are still learning about and enjoying new roles at my age.”

The reason as to why Stelling left Soccer Saturday tenure was down to his health struggles. Talking to The Guardian, he admitted constant challenges to air his views started to result in the decline of his wellbeing.

“Even though I’d been there a long time, I felt some of my views weren’t considered at all. Every week I was fighting a battle. I got tired of fighting and it was making me ill. Eventually, I went to Sky’s management and said: ‘This is making me unwell. I’ve got to step away from it.’

“I’m almost ashamed to say it because my dad worked in a steelworks and would come back from his shift covered in grime and muck and absolutely exhausted. He would never have allowed me to say I was shattered after a TV show. But I felt it was making me ill so I had to step away.”

As it says, it is Out Now!! pic.twitter.com/sXBg7DLRb5

— Jeff Stelling (@JeffStelling) November 7, 2024

An evening with Jeff Stelling dates

NOVEMBER 2024

Wed 13 – Kings Georges Hall, Blackburn (special guest Paul Merson)
Thu 14 – Middleton Arena, Middleton (special guest Paul Merson)
Wed 20 – Adam Smith Theatre, Kirkcaldy
Thu 21 – Town House, Hamilton (special guest Charlie Nicholas)
Wed 27 – Floral Pavilion, New Brighton (special guest Paul Merson)
Thu 28 – Town Hall, Middlesbrough (special guest Paul Merson)

2025 TOUR DATES

JANUARY

THU 9/01/2025 – CORN EXCHANGE – EXETER
FRID 10/01/2025 PAVILION THEATRE – WYMOUTH
SAT 11/01/2025 SWAN THEATRE – HIGH WYCOMBE
WED 15/01/2025 LYCEUM THEATRE – CREWE
THU 16/01/2025 GRIMSBY AUDITORIUM – GRIMSBY
FRID 17/01/2025 WILLIAM ASTON HALL – WREXHAM
WED 22/01/2025 THE CRESSET – PETERBOROUGH
THU 23/01/2025 GRAND THEATRE – LANCASTER
FRI 24/01/2025 PAVILION THEATRE – RHYL
WED 29/01/2025 PLAYHOUSE THEATRE – WHITLEY BAY
THU 30/01/2025 PAVILION THEATRE – GLASGOW
FRID31/01/2025 CONCERT HALL – PERTH

FEBRUARY 2025

WED 05/02/2025 LIGHTHOUSE THEATRE – KETTERING
THUR 06/02/2025 BRENTWOOD CENTRE – BRENTWOOD
FRID 07/02/2025 HIPPODROME – EASTBOURNE
WED 12/02/2025 GUILDHALL – PORTSMOUTH
THUR 13/02/2025 LIGHTHOUSE THEATRE – POOLE
FRID 14/02/2025 WHITEROCK THEATRE – LONDON
THUR 20/02/2025 PLAYHOUSE THEATRE – EPSOM
FRID 21/02/2025 REGENT THEATRE – IPSWICH
TUES 25/02/2025 SHREWSBURY THEATRE – SHREWSBURY
WED 26/02/2025 WATERSIDE THEATRE – AYLESBURY
THUR 27/02/2025 CORN EXCHANGE – KING’S LYNN
FRID 28/02/2025 HIPPODROME THEATRE – DARLINGTON

MARCH 2025

SAT 01/03/2025 OPERA HOUSE – BUXTON
WED 05/03/2025 HERTFORD THEATRE – HEREFORD
THUR 06/03/2025 CONCORDE THEATRE – HAMPSHIRE
MON 10/03/2025 LONDON PALLADIUM – LONDON

More about Saturday Afternoon Fever: The Autobiography

A profoundly personal, warmly nostalgic and deliciously funny memoir by the legendary Sky Sports anchorman Jeff Stelling, chronicling a life spent obsessing about ‘The Beautiful Game’ ever since he was a little boy, and underpinned by a deeply rooted love of football and of people.

For a quarter of a century the iconic Sky Sports football presenter Jeff Stelling was the face and voice of football television. As the host of Soccer Saturday, a results show with National Treasure status, he expertly presided over a live panel of former footballers watching the most exciting sporting chapter of the weekend, on the telly, in front of a transfixed audience of millions, watching, unbelievably… on the telly.

Beginning at midday and wrapping just after the Premier League’s players had showered and changed, the show’s popularity stitched Stelling into the fabric of match-day rituals up and down the country. For fans, the weekend didn’t exist without an hour or four of Soccer Saturday.

Saturday Afternoon Fever is Stelling’s moving and fascinating memoir: a love letter to the game that has shaped and defined him, as it has millions of other football fans across the UK. This is the passionate, engaging tale of one fan’s journey from the terraces at Hartlepool’s rainy Victoria Park in the 1960s to the sleek and salubrious confines of the Sky Sports studios, an adventure that spans well over half a century and some of the most fast-changing, exciting periods in football’s history.