Jeff Stelling reveals why he really had to leave Sky Sports Soccer Saturday

Jeff Stelling reveals why he really had to leave Sky Sports Soccer Saturday as he opens up in an honest interview with The Guardian.

The 68 year old presented the Gillette Soccer Saturday show for Sky Sports between 1994 until 2023, calling time of the role in October 2021, but then in March 2022, Sky Sports announced that Stelling would be staying until at least the end of the 2022–23 season.

He stuck to his word this time, leaving the broadcaster, and these days is presenting on talkSPORT, has launched a tour and is also host a new podcast.

Thanks to @JeffStelling for talking about his life after Soccer Saturday, why he had to leave, his new podcast, why he is happy to be “the other one” alongside Chris Kamara, the prejudice of Joey Barton and watching Hartlepool as a kid with his big sisterhttps://t.co/RhmXAe5hAX

— Donald McRae (@donaldgmcrae) January 19, 2024

Jeff Stelling has spoken about how tough it got for him in the last few years of his time at Sky. He said: “I had the most fantastic run on the show.

“I made the greatest mates and was paid well for one of the best jobs in the world. But the show was heading in a direction which meant it wasn’t quite the same. 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.’”

Jeff previously said to The Guardian in 2020 that he was disappointed at seeing his fellow colleagues Phil Thompson, Matt Le Tissier and Charlie Nicholas all sacked from Soccer Saturday over Sky wanting to increase diversity among its reporters, presenters, broadcasters and pundits.

While Jeff Stelling understands this, he felt his distress was more noticeable because so many of these men were his friends.

“They were,” he says. “But it was more because I’d become unclear [about Sky’s direction] before Shreevesy or Martin left. Soccer Saturday used to be distinctive and we had a great team of reporters who would do off-the-wall features.

“But it reached the point where I would go home Saturday [after the show] and never go out with my wife or family because I was so worn out. Sunday, I felt ill with the stress and that extended into Monday and I’d start work on the next show on Tuesday still feeling stressed out. All the time you were flat on the floorboards just to keep the show afloat.

“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.”

Stelling said the show was “an absolute joy. We all loved working on the show – from me and the panel to the producer and backroom staff. We were a real team.”

He said on Sky wanting to keep him: “I wasn’t constantly at management’s door but one or two big decisions were made, and I can’t say what they were, and I wasn’t even consulted.

“That’s their right but I felt I’d been there so long that maybe I’d earned the right to be asked.

“It annoyed me and there were two occasions where they almost diametrically opposed my views.

“I was disregarded and the joy was sucked out of it.

“Now I’ve got a life where I make my own decisions or the company, talkSPORT, ask: ‘Is there anything you want on the show? Any guests you want?’

“What a joy to be treated like this. I don’t want to be anti-Sky, though.

“Sky were wonderful to me and there’re still some great people there, in management as well.”

Jeff Stelling also had his say on Joey Barton’s rants: “Oh, yes. You can’t avoid it, can you? I’ve worked with Joey a couple of times and I enjoyed his company then.

“But you’ve absolutely nailed it. Initially, I’m sure this was to gain some traction for the podcast. Unfortunately it’s become a monster and totally wrong to say women have no right to talk about football.”

He remembers how as a kid, he and his sister Sue (six years older) went to Hartlepool matches: “She would honestly be the only woman in the ground. There were no toilet facilities for women and it was very foreboding and unwelcoming.”

When asked if men made comments about Sue, he responded: “Oh yeah! And they weren’t as mild as that. It was a totally sexist environment. To see a woman at football was a shock and they didn’t understand she was just my big sister doing me a massive favour in taking me to the game. I’m so glad that’s changed because you now see so many women and families at football matches.”

The host of Jeff Stelling’s new tour is Bianca Westwood, he says: “Fifty years ago, a woman wouldn’t have had an opinion on football because most had never been to a live game because it was such a forbidding, alien atmosphere. But times have changed, thank God.”

You can read more on what Jeff had to say, inlcuding his bond with Chris Kamara by clicking HERE.

Here’s how fans reacted as Jeff Stelling reveals why he really had to leave Sky Sports Soccer Saturday…

@MI5TC: Not sure I would share Geoffs disappointment at the sacking of a nut job like Tissier but I have to admit, I did used to love watching Soccer Saturday back in the day, especially before I found ‘another’ way to watch football on Saturdays. Would be on everywhere you went as well. You go to any pub, bar, sports venue or hall and there would be a telly with it on playing in the background and you always knew what was going on. Some great characters on there as well over the years. Shame really

@Pesam15: The years that you, Chris, Bianca et al gave us while you were at SKY will forever be remembered as a golden age of TV entertainment. None of you sought celebrity status, you were just providing a service…..but what a service you provided. Keep up the great work. 🍻

@AdamRedman80: Saturdays will never be the same again, but on the plus side I can’t be arsed to bet nowadays because I just can’t watch Soccer Saturday anymore. Sky should’ve let Jeff have whatever he wanted, but it’s clear whoever is running Sky now, has no clue what real fans want. 📦 ✔️

@danballs88: Gone are the days when you could watch soccer saturday with a pint, and be entertained the whole show, used to be something for blokes to enjoy, now it is utter garbage.

@JohnMcD0412: Sky destroyed a brilliant show overnight. Bizarre woke decision

@JayIgnition: Soccer Saturday is horrendous now