Manchester United and England legend Paul Scholes has signed a four-year deal to become a pundit for BT Sport across its live football output, as well as work on ITV’s live coverage of the 2014/15 UEFA Champions League season.
The ex-midfielder, who retired from playing for the second time just over a year ago, will join BT Sport’s panel of analysts for its live coverage of 38 Barclays Premier League from the start of the 2014/15 season.
Taking up his first regular punditry roles since retiring, Paul will also join ITV Sport’s studio team on UEFA Champions League nights from the group stages onwards of this season’s competition, the free-to-air channel’s last season covering live games before BT Sport takes over exclusive live rights from 2015-16 onwards.
Scholes, 39, who has two UEFA Champions League winners medals, will then transfer across to BT Sport when the channels begin covering the leading European football competitions from the start of 2015-16, when BT Sport will become the home of both the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League.
The Salford-born star amassed an incredible array of silverware in a career spent entirely at Old Trafford, making 718 appearances and scoring 155 goals.
He won the Premier League 11 times, the FA Cup three times, Football League Cup twice and FA Community Shield five times, as well as racking up a total of 66 England caps.
Despite his stellar career on the field, Scholes decided to keep his distance from the media during his playing days, rarely speaking in television interviews, though he made a distinguished TV punditry debut for Sky Sports last season, with his comments regarding the future of former Manchester United David Moyes and the Arsenal team becoming news stories in their own right (see below).
Scholes will join other former and current Manchester United stars working for BT Sport, including Rio Ferdinand, now with QPR, and Robin van Persie, who are ambassadors for the channels.
Ex-teammate Owen Hargreaves will also be fellow pundit, while Michael Owen will continue as one of the channel’s main co-commentators.
Grant Best, Senior Channel Executive Producer, BT Sport, said: “Paul has proved himself to be a forthright and astute pundit since he hung up his boots.
“His recent opinions have been every bit as tenacious as his tackling on the pitch. It is fantastic that we have been able to sign up a legend like Paul to offer a unique insight, based on a record of consistent success at the highest level of the game.”
Niall Sloane, ITV Director of Sport, added: “Having won the competition twice with Manchester United and played a key role in their European campaigns from the 1990s until his retirement in 2013, Paul brings his phenomenal expertise and insight to our team and we’re all looking forward to working with him this season.”
ITV holds the rights to show live Champions League and Europa League matches and highlights until 2015, after which it will show Champions League highlights.
BT Sport will kick off its new season in the Barclays Premier League with exclusively live coverage of Louis van Gaal’s first league game as the new Manchester United manager on the opening day of the new season on August 16.
The channels, which are free for a second season for BT broadband customers, will also show current champions Manchester City three times in the Barclays Premier League during its initial selection of TV matches, as well as their FA Community Shield match versus Arsenal on August 10.
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