Alex Scott is one of the stars tipped to take Gary Lineker‘s place as the host of BBC’s popular football show Match of the Day. But fans have a lot to say about it.
Reports confirmed that Gary will be exiting the flagship football programme after 25 years. While his replacement is yet to be made official, Alex has become the centre of social media discussion for all the wrong reasons.
While very few strongly opinionated fans argue that Alex “isn’t a great presenter,” others seem to find issues with her being a woman. Sadly, they believe a female host can’t do justice to the show.
Alex Scott tipped for Match of the Day
For the unversed, Alex is a former professional football player-turned-broadcaster. She started to appear before the camera following her retirement from international football in 2017.
Born in London, the 40-year-old mostly played for Arsenal in the FA WSL. She represented Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Alex is a much sought-after TV presenter who started her career with BBC. She became the Football Focus presenter in 2021. The pundit had regular appearances on Match of the Day, and The One Show while serving as presenting team member on The Women’s Football Show.
The sports presenter also contested in Strictly Come Dancing in 2019. She partnered with Neil Jones.
She is no stranger to football highlight programme. But the fact that Alex is in the running for Gary’s replacement has turned quite a few heads.
20K likes for people to say they don’t want Alex Scott as Gary Lineker’s replacement on Match of the Day pic.twitter.com/wPRnWHMjFq
— Lee Hood (@Mofoman360) November 14, 2024
Alex Scott as Gary Lineker’s replacement gathers reactions
Several fans have echoed football manager Joey Barton’s emotions about Alex being among the candidates to replace Gary on Match of the Day as he has stepped down from his role.
According to the Metro, Joey had only a two-word response: “Fantastic news.” Previously, while attending Piers Morgan’s Uncensored show, he had openly expressed his disapproval of Alex as a presenter of the men’s game.
His remark about Alex came after he publicly stated that women “shouldn’t be talking with any kind of authority in the men’s game”.
Now, the news that Alex is a new bookies’ favourite to succeed Gary has prompted similar reactions from trolls on X.
Fans want a ‘male presenter’
One X user who isn’t too thrilled to see Alex as Gary’s replacement wrote: “If they give the job to Alex Scott, and I presume they’ll still have a female presenter on the Women’s football show, it’ll be like a middle finger to men’s football.”
“Fans of Match of the Day do not want a woman as host! We do not want Alex Scott. Leave her on The One Show. We will not watch MOTD if [there’s] a female host,” said another.
Someone else tweeted: “Because it’s men’s football. It’s always been a man on MOTD. Better banter, can connect with the male ex players. Prefer a man presenter.”
Others opined that they don’t mind a female presenter on Match of the Day as long as it isn’t Alex.
One user wrote: “If they want to appoint a woman then it has to be Gabby Logan – Alex Scott is shocking.”
However, Alex’s fans have extended her support, nevertheless.
“Why shouldn’t Alex Scott or Gabby Logan be the one? It’s possible to appoint a woman without it being a box-ticking exercise,” read one comment.
Another added: “Feeling for Alex Scott at the moment. Some brutal trolling of a great TV presenter.”
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