New BBC Sportsound cutbacks mean Celtic and Scottish football left with even less coverage

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In the not so distant past, BBC Radio Scotland very much leaned into its football coverage as a cornerstone of the station.

There were nightly shows of various types – reviews of the Scottish football press, magazine coverage of the lower leagues, discussion shows and call-ins.

Now, save for the extensive Saturday edition, it seems it’s all been reduced to live match coverage of fixtures for about half an hour each side of the whistle, with nothing much else to speak of.

Presenter Kenny Macintyre recently shared on social media that the weekly Monday night discussion show, which was almost the last of its kind on the station for Scottish football, was no longer being produced.

The Friday night preview show has also become increasingly infrequent, with none currently booked into the public schedules.

Now, you may be thinking this is no shame. Certainly, Sportsound has received its fair share of pelters over the years including from Celtic supporters.

But in a world where Scottish football isn’t that well served by coverage across the BBC already, having programmes disappear is no great thing. Change is better than erasure, I’d say.

I actually enjoy the ups and downs of discussions on BBC Radio Scotland. For every Charlie Adam, there’s a Michael Stewart. Yes, there’s an apparent Aberdeen obsession from some and Macintyre is a self-confessed Rangers fan (which can get quite overbearing) but it still often felt newsworthy.

We even sometimes get to see the machinations of football in this country exposed, a recent example of which was head of refereeing Crawford Allan’s interview live on air which left both Hearts and Celtic annoyed.

The robust football debates during the Covid-19 crisis in 2020 were absolutely required listening to stay on top of the latest goings-on in the crazy world of the SPFL board rooms. This is all seemingly less of a priority for the station and I find that disappointing.

The BBC may argue they are retaining healthy live commentary and broadcasts of the game across their platforms and in fairness, that is true.

But with match coverage the only thing remaining – how long before that is also eaten into? That has to be the big question now. Reducing commentary and match shows seems like the logical next step if not in the near term then certainly in the future.

Fan media is on the march across various platforms. It is thriving and I’m grateful for that, of course. But I’ve always maintained Celtic and Scottish football coverage is best served by the ‘mainstream’ press and fan press working in conjunction with each other rather than the latter replacing the former.

Football in this country needs broadcasters that believe in the product and, increasingly, it seems like the majority don’t – even those which used to be reliable go-to’s.

In other news, Hibs blow ahead of Celtic match; Shaun Maloney now missing 8 players.