Sky Sports’ Soccer AM had some popular presenters down the years, including the likes of Tim Lovejoy, Helen Chamberlain and Jimmy Bullard, but the show was ultimately axed in 2023
Tim Lovejoy has admitted regret over not “hassling” Sky Sports bosses more to make Soccer AM a bigger hit on the internet.
Soccer AM was well-known for its light-hearted take on the current affairs in the footballing world, with key segments including Fans of the Week, the Soccerettes and the Car Park Game, which was renamed almost every season until bosses settled on You Know The Drill Live in 2018.
The football show was axed in 2023, with the final episode airing on Saturday, May 27 – the day before the end of the 2022/23 Premier League season. Past presenters Helen Chamberlain and Lovejoy appeared on the show between the years of 1995 and 2017, with Lovejoy leaving the cast earliest in 2007.
The duo appeared on the podcast Soccer A-Z – in association with Mail Sport’s YouTube channel – to discuss all things football, including their biggest regrets from their Soccer AM days.
Chamberlain danced around the question by claiming that “it was a different time” when she worked on the programme – adding that the show would be “cancelled immediately” should it premier live today on Saturday mornings.
Meanwhile, Lovejoy admitted that he wished he had pushed Sky Sports bosses a little further when it came to the digital content side of things, stating that they could have channelled other broadcasters more had they taken the time to research things for online.
The 56-year-old said: “To change the question very slightly, I went to see the guys at Sky and said to them, ‘can we take over the online bit?’ Because I was obsessed with the internet, and I could see it all developing. I was sort of told that Sky didn’t really care that much about digital because we weren’t worried.
“We were a broadcaster, and that was the exciting thing, and I wish I’d hassled them more to actually take that over because I think at the time, there was the BBC, Football 365 and a few others coming through.
“I think we could have challenged it, and I think that is – we can see now how massive online content is, and I wish we’d gone more down that direction. I wish I’d hassled them more.”
While the presenters themselves agreed that Soccer AM may not have done as well in recent times due to the nature of the programme, many fans look back on the show with fond memories – and things could have been much different had Lovejoy pushed for more online presence in the early days.