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Johnny Warren, Les Murray’s ‘The World Game’ brand shut down by SBS
By Vince Rugari
The last remaining link to the legacy of legendary broadcasters Les Murray and Johnny Warren has been severed, with SBS announcing the imminent shutdown of The World Game digital platform.
The World Game began in 2001 as a six-hour live television program on Sunday afternoons hosted by Murray and Warren, and was once the go-to source of football news from around the world for Australian fans.
Andy Paschalidis, Les Murray and Johnny Warren were the faces of SBS football coverage in the early days, and together hosted On The Ball - the predecessor to The World Game.Credit: SBS
It was the successor to the equally influential On The Ball, which Murray and Warren - also known as ‘Mr and Mrs Soccer’ - hosted from 1984.
SBS stopped broadcasting The World Game on television several years ago, replacing it with a live weekly webcast fronted by Lucy Zelic to accompany their online news offering.
But the entire brand will now be consigned to history after SBS announced on Thursday that it was consolidating its sports coverage into one website.
The public broadcaster is also closing down its Cycling Central platform - signalling a significant step away from the two sports which have been synonymous with SBS for many decades.
Sources familiar with SBS’s decision have confirmed the changes will result in a round of redundancies.
“While our websites for The World Game and Cycling Central will no longer exist, we will continue to engage audiences with unique and diverse content on alternative platforms,” SBS said in a statement.
Murray, a Hungarian immigrant who became an icon of Australian media, passed away nearly four years ago, while former Socceroos captain Warren died in 2004 - shortly before the Socceroos ended their 32-year exile from the World Cup with a famous qualifying win over Uruguay.
Another SBS football regular, Craig Foster, parted ways with the company last year.
SBS said it would still be the “home of cycling in Australia”, as it retains the rights for the Tour de France until 2030, while it is also the exclusive Australian rights holder to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar and a handful of other international events.
However the demise of one of Australian sport’s most famous media brands - coming after a series of cutbacks across the media industry - will come as a body blow for football fans, amid a period of seismic change for the sport in Australia.
The rights for the A-League and W-League - which SBS previously broadcast - are currently on the market, as is a swathe of international fixtures involving the Socceroos and Matildas held by Football Australia, and the 2023 Women’s World Cup to be played in Australia and New Zealand.