Wright quits as BBC pundit over ‘jester’ role

Ian Wright has quit as a BBC football pundit, attacking the corporation for the stuffy style of its coverage and claiming he was forced into the role of a “comedy jester”.
The former England and Arsenal striker told Broadcast that the BBC’s coverage of England games was too formal. “Times are changing. I don’t know how long young people are going to want to sit down and watch that same old ‘jacket, shirt and tie’ format,” he said.

In my experience of dealing with football professionals – the backroom, not the pitch – the whole game is old fashioned. There’s a collar and tie, hierarchical, stuffy attitude throughout the game. I remember, as a senior BBC manager, being told to “Wait there son until we say you can come in” when I turned up at the office of a  football league club for a meeting about match coverage. There are lots of jobsworths in there.

So if Wrighty wants to change things he may have to challenge some of his old bosses first.