Alex Scott is best known for hosting Football Focus on BBC One. However, before becoming the first woman to be the permanent presenter of the show, Alex was a footballer who played as a right-back for Arsenal in the Women's Super League.
Discover our latest podcast
She also made 140 appearances for the England national team and represented Great Britain during the 2012 London Olympics. After hanging up her football boots, Alex Scott, who has one of the most influential voices in football, made history when she joined Football Focus.
Alex Scott made history on the BBC
Stylist reported in 2020 that Alex Scott was the first woman to be the permanent presenter of Football Focus when she took over from Dan Walker. Football Focus first aired in 1974 and has had a number of hosts in the last fifty years, including Gary Lineker, who has responded to claims he is also leaving BBC.
At the time, Scott had retired from football for three years and revealed that when she was younger she never imagined that ‘someone like her’ could host Football Focus.
When I was a kid, I would never have watched television and thought someone like me could be presenting a programme like Football Focus. For the BBC to trust me with this role and allow me to be my true, authentic self means a lot.
As her contract is up for renewal, there are talks that she will be leaving the show after she felt a ‘lack of support’ and was incorrectly blamed for the dropping of views.
Alex Scott could be leaving Football Focus
As mentioned above, there are rumours that Alex Scott, who has previously opened up about her journey to fame, may be leaving BBC after she felt she was wrongly blamed for falling views. These rumours started after it was announced she wouldn’t be hosting Children in Need, for the first time in four years, as per The Sun.
According to a source, the decision was mutual and Scott is ‘embracing a new chapter in her life’.
Alex has never been happier than she is right now, she's just turned 40 and embracing a new chapter in her life, and the decision to part ways from Children In Need - an event she is hugely proud to have been a part of - was entirely mutual.
The source added that the former Arsenal player wants to focus on her ‘ambassadorships with UNICEF and Refuge right now’ and is reportedly ‘contemplating a move to America’ with her girlfriend, singer, Jess Glynne.
There are no guarantees she will be with the BBC next summer - her contract is up for renewal and she is in talks for a raft of other exciting projects.
Alex Scott reportedly felt unsupported
The source tells The Sun that Alex Scott was ‘hugely hurt’ after she was blamed for falling views and felt like she was ‘thrown under a bus’.
Last year she was hugely hurt by unfair criticism about falling viewing figures - and felt she was thrown under a bus.
The viewing figures were not as reported and she feels no-one backed her up and issued the correct viewing figures.
As per The Sun, it was reported that Football Focus had lost a third of its audience in the last four years, but according to the unnamed source, the views were ‘actually super healthy’.
The viewing figures are actually super healthy, and Alex raised her concerns as she has been in this business long enough now to stand up for herself.
Read more:
Alex Scott: Here's everyone the footballer-turned-pundit dated before Jess Glynne
Gary Lineker's football career: Here are all the clubs he played for before he retired
Gary Lineker believes Frank Lampard could be a good replacement for Gareth Southgate if he retires
Sources used:
The Sun: ‘Beeb Blow Alex Scott could quit BBC and move to US after ‘lack of support’’
Stylist: ‘How Alex Scott is making history with her new Football Focus role’
Wikipedia: ‘Alex Scott’
