BBC bombarded with complaints after 'poor and biased' Match of the Day coverage

The BBC has received 103 formal complaints following Match of the Day's coverage of Sunderland's triumph against Crystal Palace earlier this month.

The newly promoted side secured a 2-1 victory over the visitors at the Stadium of Light on January 17, but viewers took issue with how the programme handled its post-match analysis.

According to the BBC's fortnightly complaints report, the broadcast was accused of being "poor/biased against Sunderland".

The complaints centre on the editorial decision to bypass analysis of the Black Cats' win in favour of discussing matters at Selhurst Park.

During the broadcast, presenter Mark Chapman handed over to senior pundit Alan Shearer following player and manager interviews.

The former Newcastle striker, with Wayne Rooney laughing beside him, made clear his frustration with the programme's direction.

Shearer said: "Just to be clear, I had good analysis on Sunderland.

"But by our editor's orders I've been overruled and we have to talk about Glasner."

Chapman responded with a quip about Shearer doing "a 15 minute special on iPlayer."

The pundit reiterated: "We have to talk about Crystal Palace, just to be clear."

The panel then spent two minutes discussing Glasner's circumstances before moving to the Leeds versus Fulham fixture, without examining Sunderland's performance.

The BBC has yet to issue any public response regarding the complaints.

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The controversy arose in the aftermath of Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner's explosive post-match interview, during which he launched a scathing critique of the club's hierarchy.

The Austrian coach expressed feeling "abandoned" by the board following the sale of captain Marc Guehi.

It was this outburst that editors deemed worthy of airtime over tactical breakdown of how Sunderland overcame the reigning FA Cup champions.

Shearer later addressed the incident on The Rest is Football podcast, which is presented by former Match of the Day host Gary Lineker.

Co-host Micah Richards explained to Lineker, who hadn’t seen the show: "So then, Al comes out and says, ‘Oh, I had some fantastic analysis for Sunderland. Oh, it was going to be absolutely amazing, but we’ve got to talk about the big news, and that was Glasner’.

"So now is a perfect opportunity for you to talk about Sunderland, Al, go on…"

Shearer, 55, then explained: “As I got to Manchester yesterday at 10am, and just before midnight, we were still on air, they did offer me the opportunity to go with the BBC iPlayer and put some analysis on it. I politely declined that offer. That is true, though, Micah, honestly.

"I thought, I’m going to have to leave Newcastle really early, because Man United vs Man City, I’ll get caught in the traffic, I’ll be late.

"I left Newcastle just after 7am, so I was in Salford at 10am. And then just before midnight, they said, ‘Do you want to do some analysis on Sunderland?’ You can imagine my reply."

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