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Gillette Soccer Saturday is a television programme broadcast on Sky Sports in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland during the football season.

Soccer Saturday grew out of Sports Saturday, which started in 1992 hosted by Paul Dempsey. Current host Jeff Stelling joined the programme in 1994 and became its sole presenter a year later, the programme's name changing in 1998. It has been sponsored for many years by Gillette.

Starting at midday and lasting up to six hours, Stelling every week hosts a panel of four pundits who begin the show by debating the games coming up and the current issues in the sport. When the games kick off at 3pm the pundits watch a game each, usually from the FA Premier League or FA Cup, reporting on significant incidents as they progress. Also included are live reports from a number of reporters at grounds across the country, while Stelling provides other latest scores which are also displayed in a vidiprinter at the bottom of the screen, which also carries news of goals and sendings off. After the games finish the studio pundits discuss the games they have been watching, and post-match interviews with players and managers are shown.

Although the idea of five men talking for six hours about football matches that viewers cannot see themselves sounds like one that people will not like, the show has a massive cult following.

Regular pundits include Frank McLintock, Charlie Nicholas, Alan McInally, Phil Thompson, Matthew Le Tissier, Alan Smith and Paul Merson. Chris Kamara also features, usually reporting back from matches, and is known for becoming highly excitable; his "unbelievable" catchphrase being a firm favourite amongst the show's viewers. Rodney Marsh was a regular pundit, known for his argumentative nature, until being sacked by Sky Sports in early 2005 after a poor taste joke referencing the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami^[1]. The late George Best was also a regular until leaving in 2004 to fight alcohol problems.

The programme is also broadcast when there are a number of midweek games, usually in the UEFA Champions League, in which case it is known as Soccer Special, and is hosted by Ian Payne. During the summer the show is replaced with Sports Saturday which is more akin to the show's original format, concentrating on sports other than football due to the absence of competitive football during the summer.

1. ^ TV pundit sacked for tsunami joke. BBC News (2005-01-26). Retrieved on 2007-03-03.