Cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants is to feature in a new Saturday morning football highlights show for children.
The new show, Nick Kicks, follows a deal struck by Viacom, which owns Nickelodeon, with the Football League for a primetime Channel 5 highlights show last year.
Nick Kicks will air on the Nicktoons channel for the next three seasons.
The shows will feature highlights of Championship, League 1 and League 2 games – filmed, edited and delivered by ITN Productions – as well as a “variety of fun features to keep young viewers entertained”.
These will include behind-the-scenes visits to clubs, interviews with players and SpongeBob SquarePants taking on club mascots in weekly challenges.
“We know that UK kids love football whether it’s played in stadiums or in the back garden so it is brilliant to be producing a series that will bring families a Nickelodeon take on the nation’s top sport,” said Alison Bakunowich, vice-president of editorial at Nickelodeon UK & Ireland.
The chief executive of The Football League, Shaun Harvey, said: “Offering a fun insight in to life at clubs up and down the country, Nick Kicks will help us to engage and inspire a new generation of Football League fans.”
The show will be presented by 22-year-old Capital FM presenter Roman Kemp and 25-year-old BT Sport and CBBC presenter Rachel Stringer.
Kemp – the son of Spandau Ballet and EastEnders star Martin Kemp – has 25,000 Twitter followers and 48,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel. He has at the top of his YouTube page a clip about trying to get phone numbers from girls by showing them he has a “verified” user blue tick from Twitter.