Soccer Am

Summary: Soccer Am is a British Football Show that broadcasts on Sky Sports 1 every Saturday morning from 9 am to 12pm and airs throughout the English football season

Soccer Am is a British Football Show that broadcasts on Sky Sports 1 every Saturday morning from 9 am to 12pm. This Saturday morning show is presented by Tim Lovejoy and Helen Chamberlain and airs throughout the English football season. Soccer Am gained popularity from its diverse mix of football facts and trivia injected into a semblance comedy entertainment. Originally intended only for soccer as its subject matter, Soccer AM has extended its roots beyond the world of football with its own spin off material – the Cricket AM. The close of the 2005-06 soccer season marks the ten seasons the show has made, and the beginning of Cricket AM.

Soccer AM showcases a number of celebrity guests, generally featuring at least one prominent (and some not so prominent) figures in football, musicians, TV personalities, and other personalities, like other sportsman or some famous individual.

Because Soccer AM has a lot of studio features during its airing time, most viewers would seldom change channels. One Soccer AM feature is the “Fans of the Week” where eight fans (usually British) of various English clubs visit the show as featured guest where they participate in show challenges and game programs. They are usually seated on a couch called “Luther Blisset Stand.” By the way, if you ever wondered who Luther Blisset is, he’s one of the first black footballers to play for England, and scored a hat-trick on his first full international match over Luxembourg. He never scored in any other international however, which led him to be dubbed "Luther Missitt”.

The challenges the “Fans of the Week” will face are actually the present flavor of the season. The “Fans of the Week” challenges name changes every season, one being “Road to Wembley” for the FA Cup Final to be held in Wembley Stadium in May 2006.

Also one interesting variation of the challenge was the “Feed the Goat”, which in fact depicted Shaun Goater and the Manchester City team. “Feed the Goat” was, by the way, a popular Manchester City fans song. The background music? “Feed the Goat and he will score”.

These challenges take place outside “Frank McAvernie’s Car Park, which is accessible by passing through “Jimmy Bullard’s Back Door”. And if in case you are again left wondering, Frank McAvernie’s Car Park was the actual happening when the real life player Frank McAvernie hit on a Russian substitute warming up on him in the face during a volley.

One colorful feature of the show is the “Legend’s Penalty” where a retired football guest will be asked to take a penalty by the car park against a keeper named "Gianluigi Bouffant", a parody of the Juventus keeper Gianluigi Buffon or "Oliver Kahn't", from the Bayern Munich keeper Oliver Kahn.