Daily Mail: Jeff Stelling 'in talks with Amazon and BBC' after Sky Sports exit

Story from Daily Mail:

Jeff Stelling has reportedly entered talks with Amazon and the BBC over broadcasting roles following his departure from Sky Sports at the end of the season.

The legendary broadcaster ended his 30-year association with Soccer Saturday on the final game of the Premier League season.

Stelling had previously planned to step down a year earlier, before making a U-turn to remain as host for one more season.

According to the Telegraph, Stelling has already been approached over presenting roles at rival broadcasters.

The 68-year-old has reportedly been targeted by BBC Radio 5 Live and Amazon Prime, who are keen to secure his services.

Amazon are set to broadcast Champions League matches for the first time in the UK from 2024, as part of a three-year deal struck with UEFA last year.

The streaming service will share rights with TNT Sports, formerly BT Sport, after UEFA abandoned their exclusivity model.

Stelling would be in line to head Amazon's coverage, should he agree to join the broadcaster.

He reportedly has to serve a period of gardening leave from Sky, before he can agree a contract with a rival.

Stelling had been a mainstay of Soccer Saturday across its lengthy lifespan and first joined the show in 1994 under its previous title of Sports Saturday.

‘It all seems like an out of body experience (with my body, you would want to be out of it),' Stelling tweeted after his departure.

‘I wanted to thank everyone for the overwhelming number of kind messages.

‘I’m going to take a few weeks to assess my options and then decide what is next.’

His departure from the popular weekly broadcaster follows the exits of former co-presenters Phil Thompson, Charlie Nicholas and Matt Le Tissier.

The trio were sacked in August 2020 after Sky elected to undergo a revamp, and Stelling labelled the move 'one of my saddest days ever at Sky Sports'.

Chris Kamara also departed Soccer Saturday at the end of last season after revealing he had been suffering with a speech apraxia disorder.

Mail Sport exclusively revealed last week that Sky Sports had axed half of their football reporting team in a brutal cost-cutting exercise, with veteran interviewer Geoff Shreeves being asked to take a significant pay-cut.

The rest of Sky's decisions have been made after a consultation over redundancies in April, with six of their 13-strong team of football reporters being cut, although some chose to go voluntarily and others may be offered alternative roles.

Due to Sky Sports' cost cutting, experienced and well-respected journalists such as Guy Havord, Dickie Davis, Bianca Westwood, Greg Whelan, Lynsey Hooper and Jaydee Dyer will also not be continuing in their current roles.

Emma Saunders appears to be the only female reporter to survive the cull, along with David Craig, Patrick Davidson, Jonathan Oakes, Johnny Phillips and Luke Shanley.