DOHA: Just over a month after he shocked the footballing world by announcing his retirement as manager of Manchester United, Sir Alex Ferguson has been named as the new anchor for Al Jazeera Sports’ upcoming English Premier League coverage.

The deal, reportedly worth over 12 million dollars, will see Ferguson front the broadcaster’s English-language EPL shows for the 2013/14 season, with an option to extend until 2016.

“Having only recently won the rights to the next three EPL seasons, we’re absolutely thrilled with this new appointment. If there’s anyone who can stir up intense pre and post-match debate in our Doha studios, it’s Fergie,” said Al Jazeera English’s managing director Al Anstay.

Following the announcement this morning, unconfirmed rumours from Doha suggested that Al Jazeera was already planning to bring on board several of Ferguson’s old rivals as pundits.

“They’ve approached Kevin Keegan, a move that should certainly liven things up,” said a source at the network.

It isn’t yet known whether Ferguson will take up residence in Qatar or simply fly over for each TV show, but with the Middle East home to a significant number of Manchester United fans he is expected to add a significant boost to Al Jazeera Sports’ ratings.

“It was a huge challenge, but to bring Sir Alex out of retirement is a real coup for us all here,” said Anstay. “We’re confident he’ll be just as successful heading up our EPL coverage as he was leading Manchester United, but he might find our show producers some less able to be swayed than the average football referee. Ninety minutes is ninety minutes in TV land – there’ll be no Fergie time if there’s an opinion he hasn’t had a chance to get across,” he chuckled.

However, in response to several language concerns voiced by viewers, particular involving the prospect of a conversation between Ferguson and regular Al Jazeera pundit Graham Souness, Anstay confirmed that the station would be providing subtitling “in both Arabic and English”.