Actually Howard, I would disagree with your perception.
I am indifferent to football, but the present Mrs Hughes is a season-ticket hilder at Stoke City and has followed the club all her life, picking up a considerable depth of knowledge about the game on the way.
Thanks to people like Alan Hansen, we can both watch Match Of The Day, and hear explanations and analysis that both inform her own knowledge, and also educate me in matters I know little about. The BBC has a remit within its charter to inform and explain, and that crieteria is fulfilled in this instance - as with other sports where not everyone is an expert, and even those that are enjoy hearing an expert point of view which they can debate.
That said, Alan Shearer is about as informative and cogent as a goal-post! Playing to a high level in any sport does not automatically convey the ability to talk intelligently about it on television, as Mr Shearer demonstrates every time he does that annoying thing he does on MOTD .... that's it - talking!