Jeff Stelling announces he is leaving Sky Sports after 30 years

Jeff Stelling has announced he is stepping down from his role as the host of Soccer Saturday on Sky Sports.

Stelling has spent more than 40 years in a brilliant broadcasting career, which has seen him anchor the Saturday football results show since 1994.

He's been involved in some of the most dramatic and hilarious moments in English football in that time but will now be vacating the position while also leaving Sky for good.

Stelling made the bombshell announcement on today's show, confirming his departure at the end of the current campaign.

The staunch Hartlepool United fan had performed a U-turn on a previous retirement call in March last year to stay on for the 2022/23 season.

However, he has now decided it is time to put his feet up and will present his final show on May 28, the last day of the Premier League season.

"It is Groundhog Day, that time of the year when I announce that I am leaving Sky Sports and Gillette Soccer Saturday,” Stelling said.

“This time it is true. After 30 fantastic years on Sky, you lot out there have supported me marvellously, as have Sky, but it’s time to give you a break from all the VAR rants and bad gags and over the top celebrations when Hartlepool score a goal and give someone else the chance to do this fantastic job.

“So I’ll be leaving on May 28th, we’ve got a few programmes between now and then, this is the last six hour Saturday Gillette Soccer Saturday… so we’d better get on with it!”

Stelling received a round of applause from everyone in the studio when he made the tearful announcement.

There is no word on who will have the difficult task of replacing the 67-year-old, who leaves huge shoes to fill.

But Stelling moving on represents the end of an era and follows on from the show's mass reshuffling - which saw the likes of Matt Le Tissier, Phil Thompson, Charlie Nicholas and Tony Cottee axed.