It isn’t exactly outrageous to suggest that Sky completely changed the face of football in England. Although Sky Television itself launched in 1989, it was the rebranding to Sky Sports in 1991 alongside the move to launch the Premier League that truly sent the broadcaster into the stratosphere. The organisation paid £304 million for the exclusive rights to Premier League football in the 1992-1993 campaign that saw football become the richest sport in the world. As a result, Sky has long been able to attract many of the best pundits and commentators to its network.
Peter Drury
When Sky Sports confirmed that its long-term main commentator Martin Tyler would be standing down from his role with the broadcaster, thoughts immediately turned to who would replace him. Names like Clive Tyldesley and Mike Parry were mentioned, but in the end the role was given to Peter Drury. Far from everyone’s cup of tea on account of the fact that the commentator loves to throw in what he deems to be poetic diatribes if something big happens in a game, there is no questioning that he was more than experienced enough to take on the role.
Drury was born in the Essex town of Witham in 1967, taking on his first broadcasting job in 1990 with BBC Radio Leeds before moving to Five Live. At the start of the 1997-1998 season, he was moved to Broadcasting House in London and became one of the commentators for Match of the Day, then in 1998, he joined ITV and was their third-choice commentator. He remained there until 2013, at which point he joined the BT Sport team, alongside working for numerous other broadcasters in the likes of the United States. He joined Sky Sports in 2023.
Gary Neville
There are few former footballers as well-known as Gary Neville, who has been excellent at making the move from playing the game to talking about it. Having joined Manchester United as an apprentice in 1991, he went on to be part of the famous ‘Class of ’92’ that won everything there was to win under Sir Alex Ferguson. After playing for the Red Devils for nearly 20 years, he retired as a player on the second of February 2011. He was considered to be one of the best right-backs that England had ever produced, which was a skill he later transferred into his punditry.
Neville joined Sky Sports at the start of the 2011-2012 campaign, taking over from disgraced former pundit Andy Gray on the analysis show Monday Night Football. When Jamie Carragher joined Sky Sports a few years later, the pair struck up a good working relationship that was fuelled by the rivalry that they had shared on the pitch. He quit his role at Sky in 2014 when he took on the managerial job at Valencia, but when he was sacked four months later, he returned to being a Sky Sports employee and has remained so ever since, known for his in-depth research.
Jamie Carragher
If there is someone who might be able to rival Gary Neville in terms of being able to translate his work as a footballer into work as a pundit, then Jamie Carragher might be the man to do it. Given the rivalry that the former Manchester United and Liverpool players enjoyed on the pitch, it is perhaps no surprise that they also have a similar professional rivalry off it. Carragher joined the Liverpool Academy as a youngster and, as with Neville, is one of only a few players in the modern game who played for one club throughout his career, retiring in 2013 before joining Sky Sports.
Carragher almost immediately took on the role of working with Neville on Monday Night Football, which is considered by many to be the best version of an analysis show of the sport on television. Although he also works for other broadcasters, such as being part of CBS Sports’ Champions League coverage in the United States of America, he is unquestionably best known as being one of the main pundits for Sky Sports. When Liverpool and Manchester United go head-to-head, he is often seen mocking Neville if the Merseyside club get the better of their rivals.
Rob Hawthorne
Rob Hawthorne was born in the West Midlands market town of Dudley in 1965, turning his hand to the world of media when he was just a teenager. At the age of 14, he took part in a talent-spotting competition that was hosted by Radio West Midlands, winning thanks to his piece covering the 1979 European Cup final. He was taken on by Beacon Radio in Wolverhampton and also presented regularly on Dudley and District Hospital Broadcasting. Not long after the launch of BBC Radio 5 in 1994, Hawthorne became one of the network’s regular commentators.
Having gained some televised football experience with Screensport in 1991, Hawthorne eventually became part of Sky Sports’ commentary team in 1995. The first game that he covered was Leeds United versus Liverpool that year, becoming Sky’s go-to commentator for Monday Night Football matches. He has covered some big games during his career, arguably the most famous of which was the 2005 Champions League final between Liverpool and AC Milan that the Merseyside club won on penalties after coming from 3-0 down to the Italian side.
Roy Keane
Roy Keane has worked hard to cultivate an image of a miserable, angry man who doesn’t suffer fools gladly. Born in Cork in 1971, he joined Manchester United in 1993 and remained there for more than a decade, helping the Red Devils establish themselves as one of the best clubs in the world. Having also worked as a manager briefly in the wake of his 2006 retirement as a player, Keane was well-placed to be able to work as a pundit for Sky Sports when the broadcaster came calling. Remarkably, considering the fact that he retired more than a decade before, that wasn’t until 2019.
Keane had worked as a pundit for ITV when the broadcaster covered the likes of the Champions League, FA Cup and national tournaments, having also made minor appearances for Sky Sports over the years. It wasn’t until 2019 that they decided that he would be a strong addition to the overall lineup, however, putting him alongside other big personalities such as Graeme Souness and watching the sparks fly. His no-nonsense approach often sees those working with him laughing at his take on proceedings, with the verve of the likes of Micah Richards clearly grating on him.
Kelly Cates
In some ways, Kelly Cates was always likely to enter the world of sport in one way or another, considering the fact that she is the daughter of former Liverpool and Blackburn Rovers manager Kenny Dalglish. Born in Glasgow in 1975, Cates was joined by Mike Wedderburn as the first-ever presenters on Sky Sports News when the television channel launched in 1998. Over the years that followed, she gained experience working with numerous different broadcasters, which included the likes of Virgin Media and Setanta Sports, interviewing managers and footballers for the latter.
It was in the August of 2016 that Sky Sports confirmed that she had rejoined the broadcaster to help present their coverage of the Football League, switching to Premier League coverage a year later. She was made the main anchor of the Friday Night Football show, then as the years passed she became a more and more integral part of the broadcaster’s coverage of the English top-flight. Known for her calm demeanour and professionalism, Cates was announced as part of a trio that would take over from Gary Lineker as the presenters of Match of the Day from the 2025-2026 season.
Jamie Redknapp
Jamie Redknapp has, in some ways, done well to escape from the shadow of his father. Born in Barton-on-Sea in 1973, he joined the youth system of Tottenham Hotspur as a youth player but joined Bournemouth when he turned professional as his father, Harry Redknapp, was the manager there. In 1991 he moved to Liverpool, becoming club captain and remaining on Merseyside for more than a decade before joining Glenn Hoddle’s Tottenham side in 2002. He saw out his career playing for Southampton, eventually retiring in 2005 after a career plagued with injuries.
A year earlier, Redknapp had begun a coaching career, working as a pundit for the BBC during the 2004 European Championship. He then made the move to become a full-time pundit after his retirement, working with Sky Sports. When Gary Neville joined the broadcaster a few years later, the two worked together on Monday Night Football before Redknapp was eventually replaced by Jamie Carragher. Not everyone loves Redknapp’s style of punditry, often appearing as though he has done little, if any, research into the teams that he is covering at any given moment.
Sue Smith
Sue Smith was born in the town of Prescott, just outside Liverpool, in the November of 1979. As a teenager, she joined the women’s team of Tranmere Rovers on the Wirral, having to field offers from other sides before eventually joining Leeds United in the summer of 2002. When Leeds failed in the club’s bid to join the Women’s Super League, Smith moved to Lincoln Ladies in 2010 and then Doncaster Rovers Belles a year later. After suffering from injuries, she failed to play again after the end of 2016, but had enjoyed some media appearances earlier in her career.
In 2000, for example, Smith featured in an advert for a washing powder called Daz. She also contributed to the women’s football section of the Yorkshire Evening Post and worked as a pundit for BBC Sport. She was a co-presenter on the TV channel Quest’s coverage of the English Football League, which led to work with other media organisations. She then became a semi-regular contributor to Sky Sports for the likes of Soccer Saturday on Sky Sports News, whilst also occasionally working on the main channels for their football coverage.
David Jones
Attending Stokesley Comprehensive School as a child, David Jones later became a journalist and began his career working for the Chesterfield-based newspaper, the Derbyshire Times. When Sky Sports News launched in 1998, Jones was one of the people brought on board to offer it some journalistic credibility, and for a number of years, he presented the news alongside Georgie Thompson. In 2007, he took on the role of the presenter of the broadcaster’s Football League coverage, remaining in that role until 2011, whilst starting to present Premier League coverage in 2010.
In 2012, Jones took on the hosting role of The Footballers’ Football Show, then in June of the following year, he was confirmed as the host of a new show called Saturday Night Football. When Ed Chamberlain left to take on the job of presenting ITV’s horse racing coverage in 2016, Jones was made Sky Sports’ main football presenter and took on the role of presenting both the Super Sunday and Monday Night Football shows. As well as being a Sunderland fan, he has also been involved in clubs, such as being a non-executive director of Oxford United.
Bill Leslie
Born in London in 1971, Leslie began to cut his broadcasting teeth working for Capital Gold. He was initially the station’s football reporter and secondary commentator behind Jonathan Pearce, but when Pearce left for the BBC, he became the main commentator. It was actually with Channel Five that he gained his first experience of commentating on a televised match when the broadcaster gained the rights for the UEFA Under-21 Championship in 2002. A year later, he made the move to Sky Sports, working on their Champions League coverage before launching Football First a year later.
When Ian Crocker left Sky in order to join Setanta Sports in 2006, Leslie was given the role of the broadcaster’s main commentator for Football League matches. His debut in a live Premier League match came with the Midlands derby between Birmingham City and Aston Villa in the 2004-2005 season, as well as in the match between Arsenal and West Bromwich Albion. In the years that followed, Leslie began to commentate on more and more Premier League matches to the point that he is now considered to be one of the organisation’s three main commentators.
A Broadcaster Bestrode by Controversies
Whilst it would be hugely unfair to say that Sky Sports as a broadcaster has been directly responsible for any of the controversies that have hit it over the years, it would also be remiss not to mention some of the bigger ones that have occurred. Even if you ignore the problems with Sky overall, specifically around the political influence wielded by Rupert Murdoch, there have still been a number of issues over the years. In the March of 2010, for example, Sky Sports was ordered by Ofcom to lower its prices by around a quarter, as well as being forced to allow its competitors to access its services at a ‘wholesale price’.
In 2011, Andy Gray, Sky Sports’ main commentator at the time, was forced to apologise after being caught saying to Richard Keys, the main host, “Can you believe that? A female linesman. Women don’t know the offside rule”, in relation to Sian Massey working as an assistant referee. The following day, Sky Sports announced that his contract was to be terminated because of ‘in response to new evidence of unacceptable and offensive behaviour in an off-air incident that took place in December 2010’. That was believed to be in reference to Gray asking a female colleague to tuck this down here for me’.
It wasn’t the only time that Gray and Keys were involved in controversy whilst working for Sky Sports. Keys was caught on camera, believing he was off-mic, asking Jamie Redknapp if he had ‘smashed it’ in regards to Jamie Redknapp’s former partner Louise Glass. He then continued, “You’d have gone round there any night of the week and found Redknapp hanging out the back of it”. Having left Sky Sports, Keys and Grey became the main presenters for beIN Sports, the Qatari multinational broadcaster in a country known for having antiquated views towards women and LGBTQ+ people.
In 2018, Jamie Carragher was forced to apologise after being caught on camera spitting towards a car with a 14-year-old girl and her father inside, after he had been commentating on 2-1 loss of Liverpool to Manchester United. He issued an apology via Twitter and for a time it appeared as though Sky Sports might remove him from their team, but the broadcaster eventually decided that his apology was genuine. It likely helped the former Liverpool defender that the parents of the girl believed that he was ‘contrite’ and that they didn’t want to see him sacked from his role.