BBC Sport staff threaten strike action over job losses and big changes

11:26, Sun, Sep 20, 2026 Updated: 11:27, Sun, Sep 20, 2026

The big changes at BBC Sport are due to continue this year with a restructure of their staff planned (Image: Leila Coker - WSL, WSL Football via Getty Images)

BBC Sport employees are threatening to go on strike because the corporation's director of sport, Alex Kay-Jelski, is expected to announce several more job losses next week as part of a restructure. Staff are due to be offered voluntary redundancy, according to the Daily Mail, as the department presses ahead with its ambition to modernise.

Industrial action is now being contemplated by a deeply divided workforce at their MediaCity newsroom in anticipation of Kay-Jelski's statements. Some feel the BBC are pushing too hard to pursue a younger, digitally focused audience, while others see these impending changes as being long overdue.

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Kay-Jelski has already overseen sweeping changes at BBC Sport, sanctioning dozens of redundancies last year. The organisation recently confirmed it was axing Ski Sunday, with other events also dropped from its schedule, including the Commonwealth Games, The Boat Race and the Rugby League World Cup.

At the close of last season, the long-running Football Focus was cancelled, drawing the curtain on 52 years of broadcasting history. At the time, Kay-Jelski firmly denied that cost-cutting measures had driven the decision.

BBC Sport's World Cup coverage faced substantial criticism after the broadcaster opted to base its operations in Salford, deploying only a small contingent of pundits and reporters to the tournament itself. By contrast, rival broadcaster ITV featured an impressive studio in New York City with views across the Manhattan skyline.

BBC director of sport Alex Kay-Jelski is due to announce more changes to their department next week (Image: BBC)

Gary Lineker, amongst the BBC's most familiar personalities for decades, recently departed the organisation and has launched his own enterprise. He has subsequently voiced his fondness for the BBC, while acknowledging its shortcomings.

He said on Davina McCall's Begin Again podcast: "I will say that I love the BBC for all its faults - I mean, and it has a few - but it's an amazing institution, and it's hugely respected around the world, and we should be proud of it."

He did add: "But yet, I must say though, living life outside of the BBC without having that thing on show, it's nice not treading on eggshells all the time."

These comments follow Lineker's remarks about the corporation in a conversation with Adam Hawkins at the Edinburgh TV Festival. He said: "For the first few years of Twitter, I posted about whether it's refugees or some kind of humanitarian issues around the world, and then I think it was around 2019, something like that, the BBC moves the goalposts, and they said, from now on, it (impartiality rules) applies to everyone."