Former Man United player worried about BBC punditry job after being slapped with ban

Punditry roles can be a minefield filled with verbal hazards, as one ex-Manchester United player is finding out the hard way

Former Manchester United player Michael Stewart is afraid he may lose his BBC punditry role after finding himself on the wrong side of the Scottish Football Association. Stewart has established a reputation for his cutting – often controversial – comments on BBC Radio Scotland.

The 45-year-old, who started his football career with United, talked himself into a Scottish FA ban after he suggested there was a "cover up" when he accused VAR of releasing two images of an offside incident with two different lines during St Mirren's clash against Hibernian. He was also reprimanded for referring to the Scottish Football Association head of refereeing as "wee" Willie Collum.

These incidents resulted in the Scottish FA banning him from the country's national stadium Hampden Park, resulting in him broadcasting the Scottish Cup semi-final from within a Premier Sports production van parked outside. He was also forbidden from covering Scotland's World Cup send-off friendly against Curacao at Hampden.

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Things don't look to have improved as he was banned from attending a media briefing delivered by Collum on some rule changes.

Speaking to The Times, he admitted there is a nervousness about potentially losing his many media roles if broadcasters feel his recent track record is not worth the risk-to-reward ratio about hiring him. When asked if he felt this was the case, he replied: " Of course you do [think that], constantly.

"At the Scottish Cup semi-finals Premier were openly supportive of me. But of course that is part of it and I am sure that is part of the thought process [from the SFA] as well. That is the argument you have inside your head all the time about certain things.

"A lot of the time people are not comfortable being openly critical. Everyone is different. But it does create a lot of stress personally and [that is] extended to people around me.

"For people you are working with at Premier or the BBC, there are elements of stress for them as well having to deal with a situation which shouldn’t really be a situation. And family, mostly, is where the stress comes in.

"But I’m not the first and I won’t be the last in any walk of life. It is the world we are living in where a lot of the time organisations and authorities do tend to throw their weight about. It’s not beneficial for me, it’s not beneficial for the authorities, it doesn’t really benefit anybody to have this sort of impasse and loggerheads.

"Even when it first happened I had contact from people that are connected within saying, ‘Let’s try and organise a meeting.’ And I was, like, 'Absolutely.’ That’s what we’re trying to do.

"And I think that that’s what it’s sort of moving towards. I’m not wanting to get into a war of words, but equally people need to be able to meet and discuss. I want to be clear that I can’t say ‘OK then, I’m not going to criticise’ or ‘I’m not going to do this or that’.”

He also said he would be willing to apologise for some of his comments, particularly when it comes to his 'Wee Collum' quip, even though he "didn't see the problem with it" at the time.