Reason Man Vs Food icon Adam Richman is World Cup pundit as ITV viewers demand his removal

The World Cup officially kicked off yesterday, with fans ready to sit down for a few weeks of footballing action.

For everyone who didn't want to spend thousands on flights and tickets to get to the World Cup, with match tickets already struggling to sell out, it's set to be a summer spent in the pub hoping that football finally comes home (for the men's team, at least).

While that means that you can thankfully avoid the travel issues that are already plaguing fans at the tournament, it does also mean that your football opinions are often disputed by the experts that the BBC and ITV bring in for the tournament, with everyone no doubt set to be singing 'Life is a Highway' for the whole summer if ITV keep it up.

Usually pundits will consist of presenters and then former professional footballers or managers, with the likes of Gary Neville, Ian Wright, Roy Keane, Emma Hayes featuring, alongside the rather surprising choice of Adam Richman.

Now, it certainly looks a bit peculiar at first that the American Man v Food creator would have been selected as an expert pundit, but it turns out that the long-time Spurs fan (that's the bad football team, not the great basketball team) has actually got a lot of what the kids call 'ball knowledge'.

Despite winning my vote by calling it football rather than soccer, it seems as if plenty of ITV viewers aren't too happy with Richman's selection, even though he's also an investor in League Two club Grimsby Town, so clearly knows his stuff.

One X user wrote: "ITV need to ditch this Adam Richman thing ASAP. It’s cringe."

Expensive ticket prices and extreme weather 🔁@AdamRichman believes history is repeating itself with the World Cup in the United States pic.twitter.com/oJpJOxmwhI

— ITV Football (@itvfootball) June 11, 2026

Another big account wrote: "Why is the man vs food guy talking football on ITV."

However, rather than judging a book by its cover, others simply gave Richman time to show off his expertise and were clearly pleasantly surprised.

One jumped to his defence, suggesting that the 'hate is forced' after pointing out that he's not only been a Spurs fan for many years, but is also an experienced writer, broadcaster and journalist.

Another wrote: "I know Adam Richman is a Spurs fan, but I just can’t hate the guy as he keeps using the proper word ‘football’ and not ‘soccer’ like most other Americans would on ITV’s World Cup coverage."

A third added: "Can get aboard with the Adam Richman segments on itvs coverage. All round solid bloke who loves football and will surely get some good snippets of local knowledge and food clips."

While one rather humorously suggested that Roy Keane could be the new Masterchef host, it seems as if Richman will continue to offer some good comments throughout the tournament, while no doubt also directing his fellow pundits on the best places to eat while in the States.