Although ITV did have the rights to show Premier League highlights for a time, taking them away from the BBC’s Match of the Day, the reality is that the broadcaster doesn’t tend to show football as often as the likes of the BBC and Sky Sports. Even so, between the FA Cup and the likes of the World Cup and European Championships, ITV does still have a need to ensure that their football coverage is as good as it can be. As a result, there are a number of commentators and pundits who only really work for the broadcaster, whilst there are others who move between them all.
Mark Pougatch
Born in the Paddington area of London in 1968, Mark Pougatch was the captain of the First XI cricket team at Malvern College as a student before studying politics at Durham University. After that, he decided to take on a postgraduate diploma in Broadcast Journalism, studying at the London College of Communication. He initially got a job working at the now-defunct BBC GLR in London, getting a job as a regular football reporter for BBC Essex in 1992. Two years later, he joined BBC Radio 5 Live, becoming the main presenter of the Sunday show 5 Live Sport.
He was switched to the main Saturday version of the same show in 2000, remaining there until he was replaced by Mark Chapman in 2016. That might have had something to do with the fact that he replaced Adrian Chiles as ITV’s main football presenter a year before, fronting the broadcaster’s coverage of the Champions League. That being said, he does still do some shows on 5 Live, including the Tuesday and Wednesday editions of 5 Live Sport during the football season. Although he works with other broadcasters too, he is best known as the face and voice of ITV.
Ian Wright
Even though he has worked for other broadcasters such as the BBC, when the World Cup or the European Championships come around, there is a strong chance that Ian Wright will be found in the ITV studios. The former Arsenal striker is one of the most likeable people in sport, having lived his dream playing for one of the biggest clubs from the city in which he was born. This was back in 1963, with his career getting underway with Greenwich Borough before he played for Crystal Palace and West Ham United either side of his time becoming the Gunners’ second-highest goalscorer.
Having also played for England, it is no surprise that media organisations were keen to get Wright in front of a camera once he’d retired from football. His time in front of the camera actually began as a guest presenter on Top of the Pops, but he was used as a pundit for BBC Sport when the World Cup was on in 2002, as well as over the two that followed. He became a pundit for ITV for the first time in 2014, after which he has been a regular member of the broadcaster’s coverage of any of the major international tournaments that they show.
Karen Carney
Born in the West Midlands town of Solihull, Karen Carney joined Birmingham City Ladies as an 11-year-old and played with the likes of Eni Aluko, who also works as a pundit for ITV. She got her debut for the club when she was just 14, playing against Fulham, moving to Arsenal Ladies in 2006. After winning the likes of the Women’s Premier League and Women’s Cup, Carney left the Gunners to gain some experience of playing in a different country and played for the Chicago Red Stars for a year in 2009-2010 before returning to Birmingham and then seeing out her career at Chelsea.
In the wake of her retirement from football, Carney worked with Liesel Jolly in order to create ‘the Second Half’, which is a programme that supports women footballers after their playing career has ended. She gained her first experience as a broadcaster in 2020 when ITV brought her on board to cover the FA Cup. In 2022 she was part of the team that offered punditry for the FIFA World Cup matches that ITV covered, doing the same thing when the European Championship took place two years later. As with many pundits, she also works for other broadcasters.
Eni Aluko
Eniola Aluko was born in Lagos, Nigeria in 1987 before moving to Birmingham in the West Midlands when she was just six months old. She grew up playing numerous different sports including tennis, taking on her brother and his friends when they played football. In 2002 she was signed by Birmingham City after having worked with Leafield Athletic’s youth team. Such were her goalscoring exploits that the team’s manager, Marcus Bignot, called her the ‘Wayne Rooney of women’s football’. She later played for the likes of Charlton Athletic, Chelsea and Juventus.
Following her retirement from the game in the January of 2020, she took up numerous different executive roles at the likes of Aston Villa and the Los Angeles-based Angel City FC. She also began to enjoy some media work, becoming the first ever woman pundit to appear on the BBC’s Match of the Day. That was enough for ITV to be convinced that she could offer insight into international tournaments, first using Aluko in their coverage of the World Cup in 2018. Although not everyone’s cup of tea, Aluko is used by ITV on a regular basis for their football coverage.
Graeme Souness
Scottish football Graeme Souness’s playing career actually began at Tottenham Hotspur, but it was with Liverpool that he truly made his name. With the Merseyside club, the hard-man midfielder won five top-flight titles and three European Cups before leaving to play for Sampdoria and ending his career at Rangers. He was player-manager at the Scottish club, with his success there meaning that his former club turned to him when Kenny Dalglish resigned in 1991, much to the surprise of everyone at Anfield. Although he was not a successful manager, it gave him experience that broadcasters wanted to make use of.
He initially began to work for Sky Sports, often appearing as a pundit for the broadcaster when they covered the Premier League and especially on the Super Sunday show. He was also used when Sky covered the Champions League, but left the broadcaster in the April of 2023. He has been used by ITV whenever the broadcaster has covered one of the major international tournaments, offering his expertise as a pundit over the likes of the World Cup and European Championship. Known as ‘one of the most fearsome men in the game’ as a player, he suffers no fools as a pundit.
Sam Matterface
Born in the market town of Dartford in Kent in 1978, Sam Matterface began working in sports radio for OHR, a local hospital radio, in 1992. When he was 16-years-old he moved into commercial radio and then to BBC Radio Kent in 1998. The following year, he took up a role at Capital Gold Sport, before switching to 107.4 The Quay in 2001. He presented both the breakfast show as well as numerous different sports-related programming until 2007. At that point, he made the switch to work with Sky Sports, becoming one of the presenters on Sky Sports News.
Matterface left Sky Sports in the latter part of 2010. In 2018, ITV confirmed that he would take over from Matt Chapman as the commentator for their show Dancing on Ice, then two years after that, having impressed at the broadcaster, he was announced as the man to replace Clive Tyldesley as the lead commentator. From that point on, it was Matterface’s voice that football fans grew used to hearing when England were involved in a major game, as well as whenever ITV were able to show a big FA Cup game. He was replaced as the Dancing on Ice commentator by Alex Crook.
Seema Jaswal
If you want to talk about someone looking to break the glass ceiling, then you need look no further than Seema Jaswal. In 2022, she presented the FIFA World Cup in Qatar for ITV, and in doing so, she became the first woman to present at a men’s World Cup quarter-final for any UK broadcaster. Born in 1985, she grew up in Richmond upon Thames and went to Grey Court School before attending Royal Holloway, University of London. Her career in sports broadcasting began as a runner for Sky Sports, using that as a springboard to do some presenting for the organisation.
Her big break as a television presenter came courtesy of CBBC’s Newsround, working as a roving reporter. In 2015, Jaswal moved to India and became the face of football in the country, presenting a football show called Let’s Talk Football on Star Sports. She returned to the UK a year later and began presenting shows for the Premier League, then in 2018, her career as a broadcaster really began to take off thanks to her work for ITV’s coverage of that year’s World Cup. She has worked as a presenter for ITV ever since, as well as other major broadcasters.
Ally McCoist
In some ways, it is unfair to pigeonhole Ally McCoist as being an ITV pundit, given the fact that he also works for the likes of TNT Sport and Amazon Sport. Yet the ebullient Scot is often the first name on the ITV team sheet when the likes of the World Cup come around. Liked by many thanks to the fact that he genuinely seems to actually enjoy football, McCoist spent 23 years of his life playing the game. His career began at St Johnstone, but it was with Rangers that he truly made his name, playing more than 400 league games for the Glasgow club before ending his career at Kilmarnock.
In 1996, McCoist took on the role of team captain on the BBC’s flagship sport quiz A Question of Sport, making more appearances on the show than anyone else. When he was passed over for the Scotland squad at the 1998 World Cup, the BBC gave him a job as a pundit and he excelled. He soon became a regular pundit and co-commentator for ITV Sport, striking up a relationship with Jon Champion that earned rave reviews. From there, he began working in the same role with other broadcasters, always coming back to ITV for the major international tournaments.
Lee Dixon
Another in the long line of former players working for ITV, Lee Dixon was born in Manchester on the 17th of March 1964. In some ways, he was destined to join the world of professional football given the fact that his father was a goalkeeper for Manchester City. As a youth player, Dixon was on the books of Burnley and played for the senior side a few times prior to moving to Chester City in 1984. From there he played for Bury and then Stoke City, eventually arriving at Arsenal as the Gunners’ first-choice right-back in 1988. He saw out his career there, winning four league titles.
Having retired in 2002, Dixon soon began working as a pundit for the BBC, usually on the likes of Match of the Day and Football Focus. In the July of 2012, Dixon moved to ITV and has been with the broadcaster ever since. Although his ‘bread and butter’ work is NBC in America, where he covers the Premier League, Dixon is in the commentary booth any time a World Cup or European Championship comes around. His somewhat dour attitude towards football means that he isn’t always well-liked by football supporters, but there is no questioning how knowledgeable he is.
Gabriel Clarke
There are few people in the world of commentary as well-liked and well-respected as Gabriel Clarke. Born in the district of Kensington in London in 1963, Clarke studied at the University of London and earned an English Literature degree. From there, he moved to Somerset and then Bristol, working as a journalist with the local papers to gain some experience. In 1991, he was hired as a reporter by ITV for their programme Saint and Greavsie, working across the network’s football coverage ever since. He also covers other sports for ITV, such as boxing.
ITV’s Gabriel Clarke is the new SJA Broadcast Journalist of the Year.
The Commentator category at the #SJA2023 British Sports Journalism Awards was claimed by Nasser Hussain, with Mark Chapman retaining his Presenter trophy…https://t.co/9YjubwBFUu
— Sports Journalists (@SportSJA) March 26, 2024
As proof of how beloved and respected he is, Clarke won the Royal Television Society Sports News Reporter of the Year award in 2001, 2002 and 2005 and has also won other awards with the Society. Often used when ITV shows the major international tournaments, Clarke will be well-known to many football lovers of a certain vintage thanks to the fact that he was a ‘roving reporter’ for ITV with the England squad when it took part in the World Cup in 2006 and 2010 as well as the 2012 European Championship.
A Cast of Thousands
ITV has enjoyed some moments in the sun as far as its football coverage is concerned. When the Champions League was covered by free-to-air broadcasters, for example, it was ITV that showed the matches. The famous ‘Miracle of Istanbul’ in 2005, in which Liverpool came back from 3-0 down against Italian side AC Milan to win on penalties, was shown on ITV and commentated on by Clive Tyldesley, who was considered to be the voice of football by many. His off-the-cuff ‘Hello, hello. Here we go’ when Steven Gerrard scored Liverpool’s first live long in the memory.
The coverage of football by ITV has not always been as consistent as when it had the Champions League rights, or when it took the Premier League highlights package away from the BBC. As a result, the broadcaster hasn’t been able to use people in the same sort of consistent basis as rivals like Sky Sports. Instead, there are many different faces who will appear on ITV’s coverage of football matches, depending on the availability of the various pundits and commentators when one of the big tournaments like the World Cup or Euros comes around.
The list above is obviously far from exhaustive, with any other number of names also involved at various points. It is the nature of a broadcaster that doesn’t get exclusive rights to major competitions, instead needing to find out who is around whenever they have matches to cover. Given that both the BBC and ITV will show the finals of the major international tournaments at the same time as one another, who the commentators or pundits are can help to persuade people to tune in to one channel over the other. As a result, newspapers will often outline who is working for whom in advance.