Fury as BBC shows TV Licence fee ad during Brazil vs Morocco World Cup match as fans fume ‘they’re scraping the barrel’

FOOTBALL fans have been left fuming after the BBC showed a TV Licence fee reminder during a World Cup match. The message sparked fury online as the Beeb was blasted for “scraping the barrel” as the second half of Brazil‘s World Cup clash with Morocco got underway. A QR code appeared in the top-right hand corner of the screen as the players took to the pitch after the break, reminding viewers to “Buy a TV Licence”. As the message appeared, BBC commentator Guy Mowbray offered a “handy reminder that to enjoy the World Cup” viewers required a licence. He said: “So, if yours needs renewing you can scan the code that’s on your screen now to do so.” Viewers quickly took to social media to vent their rage, slamming the message as “absolutely shocking”. Read more in Football One user wrote: “Scan the QR code to buy a TV licence. Man, the BBC really have scraped the barrel with this World Cup coverage. “Why don’t you send some more OAPs threatening letters instead? Che-ching!” Another added: “Some mental self sabotage from the BBC, who are now providing you with an on screen QR code to buy a TV Licence.” “BBC trying to get people to get a TV Licence whilst being the most amateur outfit out there is peak Yookay,” a third posted. Most read in Sport A fourth fumed: “So the BBC uses the WorldCup to remind everyone to renew their TV Licence. Funny that. “They’ve cut costs by staying in Salford, lost Lineker from their football coverage and somehow still find time for licence fee sales pitches instead of analysis.” It comes after Gary Lineker claimed the BBC’s World Cup studio in Salford was just a “green box” and “soulless”. “I am very surprised the Beeb are not coming. It doesn’t make sense to me,” he said. He went on to add: “It will probably get the vast majority of the most watched television programmes of the year. Almost certainly therefore it justifies a presence. “And they [the BBC] will cover it fine… but I have done many shows when we have not been able to go to tournaments and you are in a green box. “Even if it looks like you are not at home – you are. And it’s soulless.” Lineker was due to anchor the showpiece tournament for the Beeb until he quit his £1.3m-per year job last year. In April, Lineker boasted about his dismissal freeing him up to spend the World Cup “overlooking Times Square” to televise his Rest is Football podcast instead of being in “Salford in a green box”. BBC presenters and pundits will work from the studio, using an LED backdrop that switches between images of the 16 host cities in North America until the quarter-final stage. The huge 360 degree screen will create the illusion that the studio overlooks whichever of the host cities a match is being broadcast from across the United States, Mexico and Canada. To simulate real-time environments, the team will use dynamic city photographs that adjust for time of day and weather. The BBC opted for this “remote working” setup to save licence-fee payers’ money ahead of major budget cuts before the 2028 Royal Charter. Meanwhile, ITV has joined Lineker’s Goalhanger in New York for the duration of the tournament, located on a rooftop in Brooklyn with stunning views of the Manhattan skyline.