BBC director of sport defends controversial work-from-home World Cup plans and confirms Gabby Logan to anchor the final

The BBC’s director of sport, Alex Kay-Jelski, insists it is the right decision to base coverage of the 2026 World Cup from Salford and save millions of pounds of licence fee money.

Unlike rivals ITV, the BBC’s presenters and pundits will work out of a state-of-the-art studio with an LED backdrop switching between images of the 16 host cities in North America until the quarter-final stage of the tournament.

But Kay-Jelski defended the move which will still see commentary teams in the stadium for the majority of the 54 matches being broadcast live by the BBC, reporters embedded with the England and Scotland camps, and other journalists dotted around North America covering the big stories.

‘To have what would probably be an extra couple of hundred people out there – and that’s before you build a studio – you’re talking millions,’ said Kay-Jelski.

‘The budget isn’t infinite and we have to make sensible and difficult decisions sometimes. I don’t even see this one as a difficult decision. I just think it’s really, really sensible.

‘If I was standing here saying everything is going to be done from a studio in Dallas, you would rightly be saying to me, ‘how can you justify that expense?’.

BBC presenters and pundits will work in their Salford studio until the quarter-final stage of the tournament

‘I don’t think the answer from a financial sustainable point of view is to say everyone can go. I don’t think that is a very clever way of me to spend licence fee money.

‘Right now I’m incredibly happy with it (the decision). It’s a six-week, high-profile tournament. We’re going to get some stuff wrong and we’re going to get, hopefully, way more right.

‘I will be my own biggest critic. There is not a world in which everything would be perfect. But I have no doubt we are doing more than anything ever before, and it’s going to be incredible.’

Former Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker aimed a dig at his old employers in April, saying that he was looking forward to watching the World Cup from Times Square instead of ‘in Salford in a green box’.

‘It’s not a green box in Salford,’ Kay-Jelski retorted. ‘It’s a beautiful state-of-the-art studio. No one’s seen it until now. It’s completely fine to assume that what was there before was what it was going to be – and I’m really proud of this. It’s not a big deal.’

With the BBC using cutting-edge technology in Salford to complement live footage from the tournament, Kay-Jelski believes many people won’t be able to tell the difference.

‘I hope you’ll agree the actual end product people are getting at home, we don’t really think it’s that different,’ he added.

‘We’ve still got the people on the ground. You’ve got pundits. Alan (Shearer) is there, Danny Murphy’s out there. Various commentators, journalists. I don’t think we’re going to have a problem of bringing that feeling across. If these people were sitting somewhere else, would your viewing be massively changed?’

Kay-Jelski confirmed that Gabby Logan, who will share the presenting duties with Kelly Cates and Mark Chapman, will be in the chair for the BBC’s opening game between Canada and Bosnia on Thursday night alongside pundits Wayne Rooney, Micah Richards and Olivier Giroud, and will anchor the World Cup final next month, making her the first female to be handed the role by the BBC.

‘I think she’s the best person to answer how relevant that is in terms of her gender,’ said Kay-Jelski. ‘I don’t view it as that appointment. I view it that she’s absolutely incredible – I think all three of them are – and I just know that she’s going to do an amazing job.

‘She’s done the Olympics and she’s just won the Bafta for the women’s Euros. She’s just an absolutely incredible broadcaster and we’re insanely proud of someone who is clearly a national treasure.’