Voice of football John Motson led the backlash after BBC Radio 5 Live's decision to axe the football results at 5pm every Saturday.
Sporting broadcast royalty lined up to condemn the Beeb's crackpot abolition of the classified check as first act of their flagship Sports Report programme. The results, read by Charlotte Green since 2013, have been dropped to accommodate more banal cliches and platitudes in post-match reaction ahead of the 5.30pm kick-off – to which BBC Radio beat talkSPORT for the next three seasons.
Fans, especially among older generations for whom the classified check is a tradition spanning nine decades, are furious. Match of the Day legend Motson, 77, who cut his teeth on BBC Radio more than half a century ago, said: “I'm disappointed because the classified football results have been a radio institution since 1948 and I'm sure a lot of people will miss them terribly.
