Disney+ women's football launch mocked as 'CBBC (derogatory)' — a golden retriever, a pasta quiz and a furious backlash
Disney+ opened its Women's Champions League coverage on Wednesday with a show that had seasoned followers of the women's game reaching for their phones in bewilderment — and sometimes fury. The centrepiece of the debut night, The Hangout, featured former England internationals Alex Scott and Lianne Sanderson, content creators Tyra Mills and Alex Bailess, and, quite inexplicably, a golden retriever called Barley Boy.
Writing in the Guardian, broadcaster Max Rushden — who says he has "made a lot of bad TV programmes" in his career — reviewed the opening night and described a panel quiz about Italy that included guessing the Italian name for football and identifying the pasta the reporter in Milan was cooking. There was, he noted, "an incredible still image of the panel staring at a load of farfalle on a big screen normally reserved for team lineups or key match incidents."
'Closest we've seen to CBBC football'
The immediate reaction was a mix of bewilderment and fury. Kathryn Batte wrote an understandable critique for the Telegraph, while broadcaster Flo Lloyd-Hughes posted on X: "Disney's new UWCL coverage is the closest we've seen to CBBC football (derogatory). I wouldn't be surprised if we see someone gunged for making a wrong prediction or perhaps Raven will make a cameo. Keep stopping to remind myself this isn't a dream."
Central to the criticism is the nagging truth that the men's Champions League would never be covered in the same way. Why replace former pros with content creators? Why replace tactical analysis with geography questions? And, perhaps most of all, why a dog?
Broadcaster Marva Kreel articulated one of the underlying issues in her own X post: "I think a lot of the problem with the debates in women's football broadcasting over analysis and punditry v content creation and gimmicky fun, is that in men's football you can get both – and in different shows. In women's football you get one show, and so they try to do it all."
Sympathy for the host
Rushden, who has hosted shows "at every possible height" from sofas to bar stools, offered a measure of sympathy for those involved. He said he could understand the thinking behind the format — the bosses told producers they wanted to bring in a younger audience, a brief he has been handed himself. He also noted that Disney could reasonably argue most of the criticism came not from young people but from those who expect the game to be covered in a certain way.
"I feel for Scott, who perpetually finds herself in the middle of some sort of culture war," he wrote, adding that he imagines Scott did not suggest having a dog in the studio or running a guess-the-pasta segment. "But sometimes as a host you have to do what you're told and do it with conviction."
Rushden was also careful to defend Mills and Bailess, who "came across as very personable and fun – which was clearly the brief – and you can't criticise anyone for taking a job."
No second-night encore for Barley Boy
Perhaps the most telling detail came on the second night of coverage: the dog did not return. Rushden framed the decision as the classic dilemma of a show that lands badly — do you double down, or subtly move toward a more traditional setup? "It seemed on Wednesday they went for the latter," he wrote.
His wider verdict was characteristically pragmatic: people watch the game because they want to watch the game, and live football coverage has not changed dramatically in 50 years. "You can't magic up an audience, but you can make people feel like you respect the game, you can do it in an entertaining way without introducing animals, and people will come back and watch you again."