Football Daily

What the report says

BBC Sport Football’s Football Daily has released an episode built around a “lie detector” format featuring broadcaster and Soccer AM personality John Fendley, known as Fenners. In the programme, Fendley offers three career anecdotes for presenters Karel Prince and Anita Abayomi to examine: a supposed clash with Lionel Messi during a FIFA game, a claim that he scored the first goal at the new Wembley in a pre-opening test event, and a story involving former Barcelona and Brazil midfielder Rivaldo disappearing before filming and being found in a nearby bush.

According to the programme description, the hosts use photographs, football knowledge and questioning to test each account before Fendley returns to explain what really happened. The episode is part of Karel Prince: Lie Detector, a Sport Social Studios production made for BBC Sounds and carried by BBC Radio 5 Live.

The segment is presented as light football entertainment rather than hard news, but it draws on well-known names from the sport and on moments tied to Wembley’s early use as a new stadium. More broadly, BBC’s Football Daily often mixes current football coverage with interviews, retrospectives and feature strands, and this episode fits that format by revisiting behind-the-scenes stories from a broadcaster’s career.