ITV is Off The Ball

14 April 2012

Television football institution On The Ball has been axed by the ITV.

The Saturday lunchtime pre-match programme, currently presented by Gabby Logan, was a favourite with fans.

However, ITV decided that the loss of Premier League highlights to the BBC for the 2004-05 season meant it had to go.

It will be a blow to Logan to lose the high-profile slot on the magazine show which leaves her without a regular weekly Premiership show to present.

When the BBC lost the Premier League highlights in 2000, it continued to broadcast its Football Focus programme on Saturdays. But ITV has decided that without Premiership highlights it cannot go on.

On The Ball was relaunched six years ago. It had previously been on ITV screens presented by Brian Moore in the Seventies, but was replaced by Saint And Greavsie in 1985.

Ian St John and Jimmy Greaves took over with St John playing the straight man to Greaves' playful punditry. But the show was axed in 1992 after viewers tired of their flippant style.

Logan, 30, was a new face when she co-hosted the new-look On The Ball with Barry Venison in 1998 after joining ITV from Sky.

Venison was dropped after the programme initially failed to bring in the viewers.

Now Logan will be ITV's main footballer presenter from next season, taking over on Champions League live games from Des Lynam who will present his last match at the Euro 2004 championships before pursuing other projects.

She has a six-figure deal as ITV's main sports presenter after reports of a bidding war with the BBC.

Logan is the first woman to hold the top job. A spokesman said: "Gabby will be the main sports presenter from next season - she will be the first lady of football.

"ITV will have two Champions League matches on Tuesdays and Gabby will present ITV1's coverage, while Matt Smith will present for ITV2."

Next year Logan will also present the coverage of the Oxford and Cambridge university boat race after ITV won the rights ahead of the BBC.

She is the daughter of former Leeds and Wales footballer Terry Yorath and her husband is the Scottish rugby international, Kenny Logan.

She once said: "I learned about football the way children learn to speak. For me it seems completely natural to be involved in football because I have been all my life."

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