MATCH of the Day has gone to its dark place and has urged viewers not to follow.
The BBC said the football highlights show is no longer suitable for women, children and anyone who does not have profound and disturbing psychological problems.
The show will now be screened at 4am on Monday mornings and viewers will be warned that it includes strong language and sordid mental imagery ‘right from the start’.
Corporation executives stepped in after pundit Alan Pardew said a heavy tackle during Sunday’s game between Manchester City and Chelsea was ‘like a donkey mounting a Dutch porn star’.
A spokesman said: “The BBC has to tread a fine line between taste and decency and fulfilling its statutory obligation to produce football punditry that trawls the most appalling depths of the human psyche.”
The spokesman also explained why there had been no on-air apology at the time, adding: “Alan was misheard. It was thought he used the word ‘monkey’.”
In recent weeks Pardew has compared a penalty box incident during a third round FA cup tie to ‘a Saturday night spit-roast at a West Midlands Travelodge’ and claimed that the Everton back four ‘would not look out of place in the shower room at a Turkish prison’.
And last month the BBC received more than 30 complaints after he suggested that Manchester United winger Cristiano Ronaldo ‘could do with being tied buck-naked to a four-poster bed while a female St Bernard takes a massive dump on his chest’.
