Possible new show for ITV

Tim Vine is piloting a new football-based quiz show for ITV.

Football Genius is being made by Hat Trick, the production company behind the BBC’s Have I Got News For You.

Producers say the show will feature two teams of football-loving fans competing across a virtual pitch, ‘proving what they do and do not know about the beautiful game’.

ITV last year cancelled its sports-based panel show Play To The Whistle, hosted by Holly Willoughby and featuring  Bradley Walsh, Romesh Ranganathan and Seann Walsh, after three series because of disappointing ratings.

Vine is a football fan who supports his local club Sutton United and has even led them out onto the pitch. He was also a steward at Wembley Stadium in his youth where he watched Wimbledon beat Liverpool in the 1988 FA Cup final and said his first football hero was Paul Gascoigne. 

The Football Genius pilot is being filmed in front of a live audience in June at Sky Studios in West London. Free tickets are now available from Hat Trick.

Here's Vine on the Australian TV show Total Football in 2014:

Published: 24 Apr 2018