Beth Mead certainly felt like a worthy victor at this year's BBC sports personality of the year award for her campaigning on behalf of refugees and the LGBTQ community. Unsurprisingly, The Fixture does not have a problem with someone speaking out against social injustice but the England women's European Championship winner has already used her platform to do that and more – the fact that she won the award is evidence of that. At the risk of sounding like The Grinch, the issue surrounds SPOTY itself.

It is a bit of a curate's egg, no? On the one hand, it seems to be representative of a time when the corporation's prestige was a lot higher, an era when it felt like a grand, old institution. The success of SPOTY was that it was quintessentially British. It was a quaint affair, typically low-budget and very much of the time.

When SPOTY was created in 1954 – then the Sports Review of the Year – voting was submitted by postcard with rules detailed in the Radio Times and the ceremony held in the Savoy Hotel. In childhood, it was a sign that Christmas was on its way, that another year was over and it was time for reflection. Above all, it was a night when the family gathered around to watch the television under the Christmas tree. Its positioning on a Sunday night at the start of the festive period brought an excitement all of its own. In those days of limited channel choice, it had mass appeal.

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The knock on it used to be that the main award failed to live up to its eponymous title – especially when it was won by Nigel Mansell (who took the award despite losing the F1 world drivers championship when his car blew up), Steve Davis and Nick Faldo, three men with all the charisma of a tailor's dummy – in the 1980s. A closer analysis would also conclude that it was overwhelmingly won by an Englishman with only 12 of 65 awards going to a female prior to Mead's win last night.

Despite nominations for Eve Muirhead and Jake Wightman, Scotland's win tally remains at seven, but at least that is a figure two higher than Wales' and a further six more than Northern Ireland (who might have thought George Best or Alex Higgins – a European champion and a world champion during their colourful careers – were worthy of recognition not just for their flawed personalities but their sporting prowess).

In truth, though, it was always a contest that veered towards the safe choice – it is a poll of the great British public after all. It has for so long been an award that placed the upstanding option above individual excellence and the ability to make us smile. So perhaps, the award to a female footballer is a sign of progress.

Its position in the calendar seems incongruous these days: sport has wall-to-wall coverage in the age of live sport and social media – most of it not on the BBC – and every major event is reviewed and chewed over ad infinitum.

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Meanwhile, recognition by the nation is all very well but more than often not there are head-scratching decisions and omissions that merely undermine the prestige of winning. When Princess Anne won in 1971 – pipping Best and Barry John to the award – for her success in the European Eventing Championship, it felt like a sop to the Royal Family. Meanwhile, Damon Hill, David Beckham and Greg Rusedski all won in years when they achieved nothing of note. 

Perhaps sensing the tide of public opinion turning against it, the Beeb has decided in recent years to move to the regions, putting on glitzy bashes with flashing lights and garish colour, thus turning the event into an Oscar-style ceremony that just does not befit the occasion.

Despite those best efforts to modernise, it feels rather tired and anachronistic – and that has been reflected in a drop in audience.

Ratings for the programme almost halved in 2020 when at their peak just 4.75 million viewers tuned in as Lewis Hamilton won the award. That was almost 50% down from the 8.6m who watched the 2019 ceremony. Unsurprisingly, figures for last year's show were much harder to track down.

Perhaps it's apathy for the format in general or perhaps a truer reflection of the Beeb's own apathy to sport in general these days since it holds the live rights to little or nothing of significance any longer. Matt Fitzpatrick's sensational US Open golf victory merited a mere 33 seconds of last night's programme, a decision that tallies with the BBC's total disdain for the sport these days.

The Herald:

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