John Motson

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OBE John Walker Motson (born 10 July 1945), also known as Motty, is an English football commentator.

He began as a television commentator with the BBC in 1971 and has reported on over 2000 games on television and radio.

Motson was the most influential football commentator on the BBC from the 1970s to 2008, apart from a brief period in the 1990s, when his colleague and rival Barry Davies was selected for two FA Cup final commentaries, the 1994 World Cup final, and the UEFA Euro 1996 semi-final between England and Germany. In 2008, Motson announced his resignation from live television commentary.

He continued to cover games for Match of the Day highlights and appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live as well as commenting on CBeebies' Footy Pups.

He resigned from BBC commentary after judging on ten FIFA World Cups, ten UEFA European Championships, and 29 FA Cup finals in September 2017.

In July 2018, he announced that he was returning from retirement to work with Talksport.

Early years

Motson, the son of a Methodist minister, was born in Salford, Lancashire, and educated at Culford School near Bury St Edmunds, but not so much. Culford is a public school where football was traditionally dismissed at the time, and rugby union, hockey, and cricket are the major sports.

In 1963, Motson's career as a reporter in Barnet began. He was a football reporter at Sheffield Morning Telegraph in 1967 and 1968, where he first covered football.

Personal life

Motson and his partner, Anne, live in Little Brickhill, Buckinghamshire. The couple have been married for 43 years. The Maestro' is one of his nicknames. Frederick, his one son, was born in 1986.

In an article published in 1982, Motson explored his family and personal connections to Boston, Lincolnshire, including being baptized in the town and spending his childhood holidays there. He also claimed to be a follower of Boston United and recalled the club's historic win over Derby County in the FA Cup in 1955. However, Barnet F.C. supporters actor Terry Jones said in 2012 he was a fan of Barnet F.C. Running half marathons, going to the cinema, and reading thrillers are among his other hobbies and interests.

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Broadcasting career

When Motson was hired by the BBC in 1968 as a sports presenter on Radio 2, his broadcasting career flourished. In December 1969, Everton and Derby became the first radio commentary on a match. He went on to play Match of the Day and became a regular commentator in the 1971-72 season. Liverpool beat Chelsea 1-0. Following their two main games, Motson covered the FA Cup Replay between Hereford United and Newcastle United on February 5, 1972. The FA Cup Replay was expected to be a five-minute segment. Non-league Hereford beat the team 2–1, making it the program's biggest featured game.

Motson sees the Hereford United vs. Newcastle United match as his big break through. The game itself, which had been postponed many times, was eventually rescheduled to be played on a 4th round FA Cup day in the midst of a bad winter. Because of the likelihood of an upset, BBC bosses decided that the game should be moved to the top of the line on the BBC's Match of the Day program. Motson says it was this FA Cup shock and the BBC's season that made his bosses sad, that he could be trusted with more TV matches; in the case of this tournament, he was later awarded a three-year contract. Ronnie Radford may not have scored his first goal, but Motson also thought he would not have had a TV commentary career.

Motson's commentary on the Radford goal:

Motson's first FA Cup Final appearance as a commentator was 1977 match between Manchester United and Liverpool. Motson was hired as a late replacement for David Coleman, who was in a labour dispute with the BBC. In a remark to Scottish author John Buchan's book "The Thirty-Nine Steps," Motson's most popular line from the game, "How fitting that a man named Buchan should be the first to scale the 39 steps; Richard Buchan was Manchester United captain and climbed the 39 steps to receive the FA Cup. Motson analyzed all FA Cup finals that the BBC broadcast between 1979 and 2008.

When the Hillsborough tragedy took place in April 1989, Motson discussed the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. Since he had been a witness in the Hillsborough investigation, Motson discovered himself reporting on a tragedy rather than a football match, and he later appeared as part of the investigation.

When Motson was surprised by Michael Aspel at a charity cheque presentation at the Bayswater Families Centre in London, he was part of This Is Your Life.

In EA's Euro 2000 video game, Motson appeared alongside Mark Lawrenson as the primary commentator.

Jane Comins, a speech therapist, undertook a voice profile interview to investigate eight of the top television and radio commentators' habits in 2001. The tests included pitch, volume, rhythm, and tone, and Comins discovered that Motson had the highest success. In a poll that ranked him as Britain's top commentator, 32% of football fans approved it.

Motson returned to radio on BBC Radio Five Live's coverage of the Premiership in 2001, when the site was launched in July 2000, and Match of the Day was no longer a weekly fixture in the schedules, but he has continued to make regular appearances on live television coverage and contributions to BBC Sport's website, as the site's predecessor, Alan Taylor, started in July 2000.

When the Premier League television rights were returned to the BBC in 2004, Motson returned to Match of the Day on Match of the Day, but he has also appeared on occasion in occasional radio commentaries.

Motson appeared on BBC Radio 4's biographical programme Great Lives in 2007, and he named Brian Clough as his "great life" as his 'great life'.

Following the BBC's decision not to broadcast live FA Cup football and the BBC's refusal to release Motson from his deal to join Setanta Sports (to whom the rights had been purchased alongside ITV), he announced his resignation from live television commentary in 2008. The Euro 2008 final was his last live television broadcast. He continued to cover matches for Match of the Day highlights.

Although Motson did not commentate on any live matches at the 2010 FIFA World Cup, he did travel to South Africa as part of the BBC team for the tournament, occasionally appearing as a studio guest on the Match of the Day highlights show, as well as providing details on the BBC website.

Since 2015, Motson has been contributing to CBeebies' football programme Footy Pups.'

Motson has worked alongside Ally McCoist, Andy Gray, Des Lynam, Mark Lawrenson, and Chris Waddle as an ex-commentator for EA Sports' FIFA video games collection. Motson was the franchisee for FIFA 96; he and McCoist were replaced by Gray and Clive Tyldesley for FIFA 06, but FIFA Manager 08.

Motson revealed in September 2017 that he would retire from the BBC at the end of the current football season. On Saturday, Arsenal and Watford's last live radio broadcast commentary was on a match between Arsenal and Watford. Crystal Palace defeated West Bromwich Albion in a match that was broadcast on Match of the Day on May 13.

Motson's career was commemorated on 19 May 2018 by BBC Two - Motty Mastermind, Motty - The Man Behind the Sheepskin, and Countdown to the Full Motty.

In August 2018, Motson was announced as the voice of Football INDEX, lending his voice to national television and radio ads for the 2018/19 football season.

In December 2018, Motson was announced as the commentator for Head Ball 2, a free to play mobile game in which he also serves as your instructional guide when starting the game.

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