The BBC is one of the most famous broadcasters in the world, known and respected in every corner of the planet. The result of that is that the ‘Beeb’ is able to hire a lot of the best possible people for the job, which is just as relevant for the organisation’s sports coverage as it is for the likes of the news. There is also the fact that the BBC not only has its television coverage when it comes to football but also the radio, with 5 Live being an excellent place to look if your favourite team’s match isn’t being televised. Many of the pundits and commentators will move between mediums as needed.
Gary Lineker
In the world of sports punditry, there is often an ever-revolving door between those that have played the game and the broadcasters that cover them. Many of the names that you’ll read about are former players, but few have enjoyed the transition between roles as seamlessly as Gary Lineker. The famously big-eared striker began his playing career at Leicester City before appearing for the likes of Everton, Barcelona and Tottenham Hotspur, being well-known for never receiving a yellow or red card as a player. In the wake of his retirement, he made the move over into broadcasting.
Initially working for BBC Radio 5 Live, he then presented Grandstand and in 1999 was given the role as Des Lynam’s replacement as the main host of Match of the Day. He would go on to become the highest-paid presenter on the broadcast network, gaining headlines throughout his career. In March 2023, for example, he had to step down as Match of the Day presenter when he criticised the government’s position on immigration. He also presented an episode in his underpants after Leicester City won the Premier League in 2015-2016.
Gabby Logan
Born in Leeds in 1973, Gabby Logan arrived into a football family on account of the fact that her father, Terry Yorath, played for Leeds United. She moved around a lot as her father changed clubs, but kept her hand in numerous different sports and placed 11th in the rhythmic gymnastics event at the Commonwealth Games in 1990. She actually studied law at university before getting a job presenting on Metro Radio in the North-East, which was enough experience for Sky Sports to offer her a role in 1996. She did that for two years before moving to ITV and then the BBC.
She presented on BBC Sport for the first time in 2007 when she covered a match between Luton Town and Blackburn Rovers in the fourth round of the FA Cup, reporting regularly for the broadcaster ever since. Between 2009 and 2013 she presented Final Score, then became the BBC’s main correspondent from the England camp during numerous summer tournaments. When Gary Lineker was absent from Match of the Day for one reason or another, it was often Logan who would step in to replace him and will join two others doing so permanently in the future.
Jonathan Pearce
The voice of Jonathan Pearce will be better-known to those of a certain vintage as the main commentator for Robot Wars when it was on the BBC in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He was initially keen to be a footballer and wanted to play for Bristol City, but any potential career was brought to a close when he broke his leg as a 14-year-old. When he was a child, he would commentate on games of Subbuteo that he played, naturally moving on to doing so for the state broadcaster when his career began with work at BBC Radio Bristol.
Your team for our first commentary of the day! ️
Jonathan Pearce and Stephen Warnock bring you Brentford v Crystal Palace.
Listen live: https://t.co/NI1sjtGRxI#BBCFootball pic.twitter.com/qpn6XjgJ3o
— BBC 5 Live Sport (@5liveSport) August 18, 2024
Having launched Capital Gold Sportstime on Capital Radio in London, he commentated on some Premier League games for Sky Sports prior to beginning a career with the BBC on Radio 5 Live and Match of the Day. It was in 2002 that he really began working for the Beeb, becoming part of the broadcaster’s coverage of that year’s World Cup and working for them ever since. His excitable style of commentary certainly isn’t to everyone’s taste, yet he has commentated on some of the biggest games that the broadcaster has covered over the years.
Danny Murphy
Known for his somewhat acerbic take on proceedings, Danny Murphy is in the curious position of being disliked by Liverpool supporters for a perceived bitterness towards his former club and disliked by everyone else for being too pro-Liverpool. His playing career began with Crewe Alexandra before moving to the Merseyside club in 1997, winning the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup with the Reds. After his playing career came to an end, Murphy made the move into punditry with the BBC, first appearing on Match of the Day on the 18th of August 2013.
In the years that followed, Murphy established himself as one of the broadcaster’s go-to pundits for Match of the Day coverage, regularly appearing on the programme alongside the likes of Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Micah Richards. He was soon made one of the main pundits for the BBC’s flagship Premier League highlights show, being one of the main ones to replace the outgoing names such as Alan Hansen, Mark Lawrenson and Ian Wright. He has also been used when the BBC has covered tournaments such as the World Cup.
Guy Mowbray
Born in York in 1962, Guy Mowbray’s broadcasting career began in the middle of the 1990s when he worked for ClubCall, which offered information about football clubs via a premium phone number. He then joined BBC Radio York and initially covered cricket and rugby league as well as football. For a time, Mowbray left the BBC and worked for some commercial radio stations, including Sunderland’s Sun FM and Metro Radio in Newcastle. In 1997, Mowbray worked for Eurosport, which was the first time he had worked on television, before moving to ITV.
In 2004, when ITV lost the rights to show Premier League highlights, Mowbray decided to leave the commercial broadcaster in order to become freelance. This allowed him to gain regular work as one of the main commentators for the BBC, particularly for the highlights of the English top-flight shown on Match of the Day. He has worked steadily for the broadcaster ever since, including travelling to commentate on European Championship and World Cup matches. When John Motson retired, Mowbray was chosen as the main commentator for the 2010 World Cup.
Mark Chapman
When Gary Lineker announced his plans to step down as the presenter of Match of the Day at the end of the 2024-2025 season, many people assumed that Mark Chapman would be given the role in his stead. That was thanks to the fact that he had been the main presenter of Match of the Day 2 since 2013, as well as having taken over from Mark Pougatch as the presenter of 5 Live Sport in 2016. In the end, the BBC confirmed that the role would be shared between Chapman, Gabby Logan and Kelly Cates.
Not to be confused with Mark David Chapman, who murdered John Lennon, Mark Chapman was born in Rochdale in 1973 and initially worked as a continuity announcer for the BBC. He then became BBC North East Radio’s cricket correspondent before joining BBC 1’s Newsbeat as a sports reader. In 2010, he joined BBC Radio 5 Live in order to host the channel’s main live sport show, becoming the go-to stand-in presenter for the network’s main televised shows. Although he also covers sport other than football, it is the football coverage he’s best known for.
Conor McNamara
Born in Limerick and studying at the Jesuit Crescent College, Conor McNamara moved over to England in order to study Television and Radio at the University of Salford. After graduation, he headed back to Ireland and earned a postgraduate degree in Business Studies at the Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, which was part of University College Dublin. It was whilst he was still at uni that McNamara first began doing football commentary, covering the FA Cup final in 1997 for Today FM, the national radio station in Ireland, getting the bug as a result.
Happy birthday @bbc5live
Older than social media and apps, but still none of them can report a goal flash quicker.
Very proud to have been involved in 22 of the 30 years, and counting… pic.twitter.com/WQ8uOSjZ3n
— Conor McNamara (@ConorMcNamaraIE) March 28, 2024
Having worked for the Irish TV station TV3, he joined the BBC in 2002 and enjoyed his first commentary in the April when he covered Bolton Wanderers versus Tottenham Hotspur for BBC Radio 5 Live. A little over two years later, he commentated for Match of the Day for the first time, covering the Everton versus Aston Villa match. He continued to be one of the broadcaster’s main commentators from that point onwards, regularly being recognised for his work thanks to yearly nominations as the Football Supporters’ Federation’s Commentator of the Year.
Alan Shearer
Alan Shearer’s playing career began at Southampton, which almost couldn’t be further from the Newcastle location of his birth. Having broken into the Saints team and impressed, he was signed by Blackburn Rovers and won the league under Kenny Dalglish, scoring 112 goals across 138 league appearances. He then returned to the city of his birth when he signed for Newcastle United in 1996, briefly managing the Magpies in 2009, having retired as a player three years earlier. In order to do so, he had to leave his role as a BBC pundit, which he had not long taken up.
In fact, his broadcasting career began in 2006 when he took on the role of pundit with the Beeb, soon becoming a regular on Match of the Day as well as forming part of the team that covered World Cup and European Championship matches. Having been a regular pundit for the BBC not only on Match of the Day but also on BBC Radio 5 Live, Shearer boycotted coverage in solidarity with Gary Lineker when the presenter was suspended in the wake of making comments on Twitter around the government’s handling of those seeing asylum in the UK.
Alex Scott
Alex Scott was born in London in 1984 and signed up for Arsenal Women’s Academy in 1992. Initially playing as a striker or a winger depending on what was needed, she was later converted to become a full-back for the Arsenal first team. She remained with the Gunners until moving to Birmingham City, but returned to Arsenal after the Blues endured financial issues. She later moved to the United States to play in the Women’s Professional Soccer league, then had a third spell with Arsenal before choosing to retire as a player in 2018, having won the Women’s Premier League five times.
Being one of the best and most successful players in the women’s game, it didn’t take long before sports broadcasters began wanting Scott to work for them. It certainly helped that she had already done some media work whilst still playing, but it was after her retirement that she began presenting Match of the Day Kickabout. Her involvement in the coverage of the 2018 World Cup saw her reach a wider audience, having become the BBC’s first female pundit at the tournament. In 2021, Scott took over from Dan Walker as the presenter of Football Focus.
Michah Richards
Micah Richards made a name for himself as a right-back for Manchester City, winning the FA Cup with the club in 2010-2011 and the Premier League the following season. He also played for the Italian side Fiorentina before retiring to England to play for Aston Villa, retiring as a player in 2019. In the wake of his retirement, Richards decided to make the move into the world of media, with his bubbly personality making him an excellent addition to the punditry team of various different broadcast networks. He works with CBS on their coverage of the Champions League, for example.
It is on the BBC that most people will have come to know Richards, however. The former defender began working for the broadcaster not long after a persistent knee injury meant that he felt as though he was forced to retire, working on Radio 5 Live as well as being a regular pundit for Match of the Day. His infectious laugh means that some people don’t take him seriously, but his analysis of the game that he spent most of his life playing is always on-point. It is his excellent work that is the reason the BBC use him, alongside other major broadcasters.
The BBC’s Former Voices
As one of the world’s oldest and most respected broadcasters, it is perhaps not all that surprising that the BBC has also had some of the biggest names in the game working for it over the years. David Coleman will be considered the voice of BBC Sport by many older people, for example, having worked for the organisation for nearly 50 years. During that time, he covered six World Cups and was the main host of A Question of Sport, the chief sports quiz on the channel. He eventually retired in 2000, having first worked with the Beeb in 1954.
#OnThisDay 1958: Grandstand was first broadcast.
We don’t have a photograph of Peter Dimmock – the original host – on set, so here’s David Coleman, who replaced him after three shows. pic.twitter.com/Dx5b2W4ejO— BBC Archive (@BBCArchive) October 11, 2020
Another of the ‘older’ voices at the BBC was Kenneth Wolstenholme, whose voice will be known to virtually everyone who loves football. That is on account of the fact that he delivered the famous line during the World Cup final in 1966, saying, “Some people are on the pitch, they think it’s all over! It is now”. Born in Lancashire, he became a freelance journalist after the end of the Second World War and initially worked for BBC Radio before moving over to television. His was the voice that featured on the first ever edition of Match of the Day.
Barry Davies will be considered by many to be the greatest football commentator of all time, largely thanks to his willingness to say nothing at times and allow the sport to do the talking; something that seems entirely alien to modern-day commentators. Although arguably best remembered as the ‘Voice of the Boat Race’, he commentated on countless different sports in the wake of joining the BBC in 1969. He became closely associated with Match of the Day after making his debut thanks to the fact that David Coleman had lost his voice and Kenneth Wolstenholme was ill.
One of the more recent commentators whose voice will still be recognisable to countless people is John Motson. ‘Motty’, as he became known, was born in Salford in 1945 and became famous for wearing a sheepskin coat during the winter months. He was initially a sports presenter on BBC Radio 2, beginning the role in 1968 before becoming a regular member of the Match of the Day commentary team in 1971. That was a role that he continued until he retired in 2017, having already stepped down from live commentary nine years prior to that.