Alan Hansen has announced that he is to retire as the BBC’s leading football pundit after 22 years following next summer’s World Cup.
Hansen, 58, has been the corporation’s main analyst on Britain’s most-watched football show – Match of the Day – since 1992, after a highly successful playing career with Liverpool.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph’s northern football correspondent Mark Odgen, Hansen confirmed his intention to quit his BBC role after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and his reasons for leaving the corporation after more than two decades of service.
“I’m retiring from Match of the Day at the end of the season. I will have been there for 22 years and will be 59, so it’s the right time for me.
“The guys at the BBC know me and I said, ‘Look, this is categorical. I’m leaving and nothing will make me change my mind’.
“I am contracted to do the World Cup and I will do that as it will be a good way to go out, but I have had a great run.”
Hansen added: “I’ve been in football for 41 years and I’m going out right at the top, just as I did at Liverpool.
“I have worked for a great organisation with wonderful people on the most fantastic programme.”
After moving to Liverpool in 1977, Hansen went on to captain the side during one of the most dominant periods in British football history.
They won eight First Division titles, two FA Cups, four consecutive League Cups and three European Cups during the Scot’s 14-year career at Anfield.
Following his retirement in 1991, Hansen swapped the dressing room for the TV studio a year later, earning a reputation as one of the most insightful and influential pundits in the country.
He has worked alongside some of the most well-known and resepected figures in football broadcasting, including Des Lynam, Gary Lineker, Mark Lawrenson, Alan Shearer and Sir Trevor Brooking.
“I’ve worked with arguably two of the best in Gary [Lineker] and Desmond Lynam. Des was the best, and is the best, because he was just an unbelievable presenter,” he told the Daily Telegraph’s Mark Odgen.
“In the early days of Match of the Day, I don’t think I would have been working for 22 years had I gone on with another presenter because he was that good.
“I could say virtually anything to him and he would come back with a line.
“And his knowledge of football was far greater than anything I thought it would be. He really did know the game.
“When it comes to Gary, you will be three or four questions in, but he already knows question five, six or seven, because he is that good.”
Hansen has also been a key part of the BBC’s coverage of major football tournaments, including the World Cup and European Championships.
His current two-year contract expires next July and he has no intention of signing a new one.
“The plan was always that I would retire at 55. I kept going, but I finally decided to retire during Euro 2012.”
Arguably Hansen’s most memorable Match of the Day moment came in 1995 when he famously responded to Manchester United’s 3-1 defeat at Aston Villa by insisting: “You can’t win anything with kids.”
That side, full of youth products like Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Nicky Butt and David Beckham, went on to claim the FA Cup and Premier League double that season.
“That line pretty much made me, simply because I got it so dramatically wrong!” Hansen admitted.
“But despite being so dramatically wrong, if United hadn’t won the double that year, you could still say that line now.”
He also revealed that he had rejected managerial offers as well as lucrative moves to rival channels in order to remain on the prestigious Match of the Day panel.
“Sky came in for me when Andy Gray nearly left to take the Everton job, almost 20 years ago,” Hansen said.
“I was under contract at the BBC, so turned it down, but there were four occasions after that when I had big offers from ITV.
“They came to me in 2006, just before I signed the biggest contract of my life at the BBC, and offered me fortunes.
“I was absolutely amazed by what they offered me, but I just felt I had been looked after by the BBC.
“I also turned down Manchester City in 1995 after Brian Horton was sacked, simply because I never wanted to be a manager,” he said.
“When I left Liverpool in 1991, I was in the frame for the job at Anfield, but if I wasn’t going to take the Liverpool job, I wasn’t going to take any job. It was as simple as that.”
A BBC Sport spokeswoman said: “Alan has had a terrific career as an outstanding football pundit for BBC Sport over the last two decades.
“We discussed his future at the end of last season, where he spoke of his intention to step away from regular broadcasting when his contract expires after the World Cup.
“Alan will remain an important part of the Match of the Day team this season along with Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and a range of new pundits.”
