Match Of The Day panel is 'too white' and needs to become more diverse, BBC says

Comes after BBC said dramas should have more black and gay actors

'It shouldn't be five white men': Danny Cohen, the BBC's director of television, singled out Match of the Day for fresh criticism over the racial mix of pundits

Match Of The Day needs to become more diverse with fewer white men on its panel of pundits, the BBC has said.

Days after announcing its dramas would include more black and gay actors to reflect modern Britain, the corporation turned its sights on sports shows.

Danny Cohen, the BBC’s director of television, singled out BBC1’s Saturday football highlights programme for fresh criticism.

He said: ‘If we have five people on a panel show, it shouldn’t be five white men. I think the same thing of Match Of The Day. It’s a very diverse sport and it shouldn’t be like that.’

Although Mr Cohen stopped short of calling for a diversity quota for Match of the Day hosts, he made it clear he expects to see changes to the make-up of sports panels in the near future.

His comments may cause some anxiety for the programme’s current team of presenters.

The weekly show is normally fronted by former England footballer Gary Lineker, 53, who is paid £1.5million-a-year for his services.

He is often paired with his former teammate Alan Shearer, 43, and retired Scotland player Alan Hansen, 58, and they are frequently joined by a string of other white male pundits, including Robbie Fowler, 38, and Michael Owen, 34.

The corporation does have some prominent black football pundits and has lined up Manchester United player Rio Ferdinand to join its World Cup team in Brazil this summer.

The first female commentator to appear on Match of the Day was Jacqui Oatley in 2007, while Radio Five Live appointed Charlotte Green as the new voice of its classified sports results last year.

Last month, Mr Cohen was embroiled in a row with one of the BBC’s top comics after he said it was ‘not acceptable’ to have all-male comedy panel shows and said every one filmed from now on will have at least one woman.

His remarks were criticised by Mock the Week presenter Dara O’Briain, who said the move would make female guests appear to be ‘token women’.

'It¿s a very diverse sport and it shouldn¿t be like that': Although Mr Cohen stopped short of calling for a diversity quota, he made it clear he expects to see changes to the make-up of sports panels soon

But Mr Cohen reiterated his determination to change the gender balance of TV this week, saying: ‘There isn’t a problem on some of the panel shows - they try to have a good gender balance all the time. Others, it was like pushing water up a hill and we kept saying it, and it wasn’t happening.

‘We got to the point where we thought, this is not acceptable anymore, this doesn’t reflect the world we live in.

‘In a leadership role, I can either keep pushing and hope it’s going to evolve, or I can set some really clear examples to provide a beacon for what our expectations are.’