New Match of the Day host Gabby Logan insists show ‘won’t be totally different’ after BBC replaced Gary Lineker with three presenters – and reveals how they kept the news under wraps with secret WhatsApp group

Gabby Logan has vowed fans that Match of the Day ‘won’t be totally different’ when she takes over from Gary Lineker as part of the show’s new three-person presenting team.

Logan, 51, will team up with Mark Chapman and Kelly Cates to host the BBC‘s flagship football show from the start of the next season, with Lineker stepping down from the role after 26 years in the chair.

Cates, Chapman, and Logan are set to split presenting duties for Match of the Day and Match of the Day 2 between the three of them when they begin their new role upon Lineker’s departure. 

Although fans are set to see plenty of switches in the hosting chair from week to week, Logan has urged that changes to the iconic highlights show will not be seismic.

‘Nobody wants to throw the baby out with the bath water. It’s a football highlights show, we’ve got the same kind of pundits… and it’s all about the football,’ the presenter told the ainslie + ainslie Performance People podcast.

Logan, whose appointment was announced by the BBC in January, revealed that she and her fellow co-hosts went to great lengths to keep the news a secret ahead of their unveiling.

Kelly Cates (left), Mark Chapman (centre) and Logan have teamed up to host the BBC’s flagship football show from the start of next season, with Gary Lineker stepping down after 26 years

Logan revealed she set up a secret WhatsApp group with the trio before their MOTD unveiling

The trio created a secret WhatsApp group to discuss all things Match of the Day and strike a closer bond ahead of the big reveal — and even deleted messages to make sure the news stayed between them.

‘I didn’t even tell my mum,’ Logan added, having only told her husband and former Scotland rugby star Kenny.

‘I set up a group chat and called it “The Match of the Day three” and there were disappearing messages as Chappers was really paranoid about this. The only person I told was Kenny!’

It is understood BBC executives, headed by new director of sport Alex Kay-Jelski, are eager to move the show in a fresh direction with the appointment of Logan, Chapman and Cates.

Having a rotating cast and two female presenters on Match of the Day is a huge change for the show after over a quarter of a century with Lineker in the hotseat.

Logan applauded the fact that broadcasting is a ‘completely different landscape’ for women working in sport, both in front of and behind the camera.

‘There are now so many great male and female broadcasters,’ she added.

‘But also, so many more females working in sports, not just in front of the camera or the microphone, but also behind the scenes. 

It is understood BBC chiefs are eager to move the show in a fresh direction after Lineker’s exit

Logan, who works as a pundit for multiple networks, applauded the fact that broadcasting is a ‘completely different landscape’ for women, both in front of and behind the camera

‘It’s like any business, if you say we have a 50/50 male and female split but all the women are doing the low paid jobs, that’s not 50/50, that’s a hierarchy that’s male-dominated. 

‘It’s been really good development to hear women’s voices in your ears and hearing them say they’re the director which is great. Hopefully it’s a better environment than when we were starting out. It’s definitely a much more positive place generally.’