![]() |
Clive Tyldesley | |
---|---|
Born | Radcliffe, Lancashire, England | 21 August 1954
Education | University of Nottingham |
Occupation | Football commentator |
Employers | Former
Current
|
Clive Tyldesley (born 21 August 1954) is an English television sports broadcaster. He was ITV's senior football commentator from 1998 until 2020. In that role, he led the ITV commentary team at five World Cups and five European Championships and was lead commentator on seventeen UEFA Champions League finals and nine FA Cup finals for ITV.
He currently serves as the lead commentator for CBS/Paramount Plus live UEFA Champions League coverage in the United States.
In 2021, his first book was published by Headline: the semi-autobiographical Not for me, Clive.
Tyldesley’s career began as a teaboy at Nottingham’s Radio Trent in 1975, joining the sports team within weeks, and began covering Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest. [1]
In the spring of 1977, he joined Radio City in Liverpool, eventually becoming head of sport. Tyldesley commentated on four European Cup finals involving Liverpool, reporting live on the Heysel Stadium disaster before the final in 1985. [2]
Tyldesley also chronicled Everton's successes in the mid-1980s [3] and reported extensively on the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster. [2]
Tyldesley’s first television opportunity came during the 1986 FIFA World Cup at ITV, when the producers decided a London-based standby commentator was required should any technical problems occur. During their first live match between Brazil and Spain, the connection to the commentators in Guadalajara went down and host Brian Moore handled the commentary from London. [4]
Tyldesley did record a commentary on the match, but failed to notice that a Spanish shot that hit the underside of the bar and crossed the line had not been given as a goal and did not realise that a Brazilian goal had been disallowed. [5] He reported that the half-time score was 1–1 rather than 0–0 and, having prepared for a month away, was sent home the following day. [6]
In 1987, he began to work on Sportsweek, a late-night Granada Television sports programme featuring Elton Welsby and Robert McCaffrey. During the next two years, Tyldesley began to split his working time between Radio City and Granada. [7]
His television commentary debut came in May 1988, covering an indoor football tournament in Australia which was broadcast on ITV. [8] [9] [10] Tyldesley also commentated on the 1989 FIFA U-16 World Championship for Eurosport. [6] [11] [12]
Tyldesley joined Granada full-time in 1989, initially as a reporter and occasional presenter on their Kick Off and Granada Soccer Night programmes before succeeding Martin Tyler as their main football commentator in 1990. He was also a regular voice on rugby league, with Granada beginning live coverage of the Stones Bitter Championship that season. [13]
Tyldesley's first ITV football commentary was on the opening day of the 1989-90 season, covering Liverpool’s victory over Manchester City at Anfield. [6] [14] [15] This was five weeks prior to the match often described as his television debut, Manchester City’s 5–1 win over Manchester United in September 1989. [16]
Granada also utilised Tyldesley as a presenter and commentator in their coverage of Roses cricket, [17] [18] whilst he became part of the ITV network team as a reporter on Saint and Greavsie . Tyldesley's first network football commentaries came at the 1990 World Cup. [6] [19]
Screensport hired Tyldesley to commentate on live coverage of the 1991 Copa América [20] and 1992 African Cup of Nations. [6] [21] His first live ITV commentary was in October 1991, when a dispute between Atlético Madrid and a Spanish TV company knocked their match with Manchester United off the air and second half coverage of Tottenham Hotspur v FC Porto was shown instead. [6] [22] [23]
Tyldesley's final work for ITV during his first spell was as a reporter and standby commentator at UEFA Euro 1992. [24]
Tyldesley received an offer to join the BBC's sports department in London in the summer of 1992, a need for new voices driven by the return of Match Of The Day to a weekly slot after the acquisition of rights to show highlights of the new Premier League.
He made his BBC debut on the opening day of the 1992-93 season, reporting on the match between Everton and Sheffield Wednesday for Match of the Day. [25] [26] The first match commentary Tyldesley delivered was on 5th September 1992, covering Queen’s Park Rangers v Ipswich Town. [6]
For the next four years, Tyldesley would contribute commentaries and reports across the BBC’s football output, working at the 1994 World Cup, the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup [27] and the 1996 European Championship as a commentator.
Because of the pre-eminence of John Motson and Barry Davies, he only commentated on four live matches in as many years with the BBC, [6] and in 1996 he was offered a chance to return to ITV. Tyldesley's final weeks with the BBC were spent commentating on basketball and football [6] [28] [29] at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.
Tyldesley rejoined ITV in August 1996 as an understudy to Brian Moore. [30] The move occurred so close to the start of the season that he was billed in newspapers [31] [32] and the Radio Times [33] as the BBC’s commentator on the Charity Shield, though Tony Gubba covered the game instead. [34]
The first assignment on his return to commercial television was highlights of a UEFA Cup tie between Arsenal and Borussia Mönchengladbach on 10th September. [35] [6] His live match debut was the UEFA Champions League match between Fenerbahçe and Manchester United on 16th October 1996. [36] [6]
Just before Christmas 1996, senior commentator Brian Moore revealed to ITV Sport management his intention to retire after the 1998 World Cup. John Motson was immediately approached for the role as his successor, but declined the offer to remain at the BBC having secured an improved contract. [37] Subsequently, Tyldesley became the network's lead football commentator.
During his first season in that role, he commentated, alongside Ron Atkinson, on all of Manchester United's games in their successful Champions League campaign, in addition to their FA Cup final victory in that treble season of 1999.
Tyldesley commentated on every Champions League final between 1998 and 2015 for ITV. He was ITV's lead commentator at the European Championships from 2000 to 2016 and the World Cup finals between 2002 and 2018. His regular co-commentators, after Atkinson's resignation in 2004, were David Pleat, Jim Beglin, Andy Townsend, Glenn Hoddle and Ally McCoist.
In July 2020, Tyldesley said he was "upset", "baffled" and "annoyed" when ITV promoted Sam Matterface to be senior commentator in his place. This decision sparked public controversy,[ citation needed ] but later that year, he joined CBS Sports to be their lead commentator for the UEFA Champions League. [38] He is also a regular commentator on Amazon Prime Video's live coverage of the Premier League.
Tyldesley carried out his final commentary work for ITV at UEFA Euro 2024, specifically, the last-16 match between Germany and Denmark. [39] The network declined to offer him a new contract.
In July 2023, Tyldesley stepped down from his role as a commentator on Talksport.
He has been a patron of the Bobby Moore Bowel Cancer Fund since 2010.
Amongst his other broadcast activities, Tyldesley has been a regular voice on Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeway and has been host of the International Electronic Games Conference at the Edinburgh Festival on two occasions.
Tyldesley has provided commentary for a number of video games, including the EA Sports FIFA series starting with FIFA 06 and running until FIFA 17 . [40] [41] From 2011 to 2017 he mostly partnered Andy Townsend (PS2 and PSP (Only FIFA 12 to FIFA 14 ), PC, PS3 & PS4 - International Friendly (FIFA 12 - FIFA 17 ), Wii, 3DS, iOS and Android ( FIFA 12 - FIFA 15 )) who also appeared before in the DS version of FIFA 11 , FIFA World Cup 2006 , UEFA Champions League 2006–2007 , UEFA Euro 2008 , 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa , UEFA Euro 2012 and 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil and options in commentary for FIFA 12 to FIFA 13 . He also provided commentary for Championship Manager 2 , [42] the last in the franchise to feature verbal analysis, and the PlayStation video games This is Football [43] and FA Premier League Stars 2001 . [44]
In June 2024, Tyldesley began co-hosting the 'The Football Authorities' podcast alongside his close friend Martin O'Neill. The podcast provides an in-depth analysis of football's major stories. The podcast also features a segment where listeners' questions are addressed. [45]
Tyldesley's own detailed research notes, dubbed his 'commentary charts', are published as commemorative prints. [46] [47]
John Walker Motson was an English football commentator. Beginning as a television commentator with the BBC in 1971, he commentated on over 2000 games on television and radio. From the late 1970s to 2008, Motson was the dominant football commentary figure at the BBC, apart from a brief spell in the mid-1990s.
Derek Rae is a Scottish association football commentator and presenter who currently works for ESPN and ABC in the United States for the English-language coverages of Bundesliga, DFB Pokal, and La Liga and Deutsche Fußball Liga for the English-language world feed as well as the Premier League coverage on Amazon Prime Video in the UK. He has provided the English commentary for the FIFA/EA FC video game series alongside former Arsenal players Lee Dixon in 2020 and Stewart Robson, who also played for West Ham United since 2021. He is also an ambassador for Berwick Rangers.
Andrew David Townsend is a former professional footballer and sports co-commentator for Premier League Productions and CBS Sports.
Barry George Davies MBE is an English retired sports commentator and television presenter. He covered a wide range of sports in a long career, primarily for the BBC.
Martin Tyler is an English football commentator. He worked as a commentator for Sky Sports from 1990 to 2023, covering the Premier League and UEFA Champions League, as well as other domestic and international competitions. Tyler had previously commentated for ITV in the 1970s and 1980s. He provided his voice to the football video game series FIFA from 2005 until 2019. In 2003, he was voted the FA Premier League Commentator of the Decade.
Peter Brackley was an English football commentator, perhaps most famous for commentating for Football Italia on Channel 4 in the 1990s, for the computer game series Pro Evolution Soccer until Pro Evolution Soccer 6, and for Michael Owen's World League Soccer '99.
Jonathan Martin Champion is a British sports commentator currently working as an association football commentator for ESPN and NBC Sports. Champion is a well-established and experienced commentator who has also worked for the BBC and ITV over the last 20 years. Champion currently covers the FA Cup for ESPN, the Premier League for NBC Sports, and the 2024 national USA women's soccer team at the Olympics for USA/Peacock, sharing commentating duties with prior Olympic gold medalist Julie Foudy.
Simon Hill is an English football commentator based in Australia. He is also a gifted musician and vocalist, specialising on the Drums. He plays in several bands-
Alan Parry is an English sports commentator, concentrating on football and athletics. He has commentated for all four main broadcasters of football in the UK – the BBC, BT Sport, ITV and Sky TV, as well as for both BBC and commercial radio.
Gerald Morris Sinstadt was an English sports commentator, broadcaster and newspaper columnist, usually on football.
John Helm is an English sports commentator who has commentated on football, golf, cricket and rugby league both for ITV and other broadcasters.
Stephen Robert Bower is an English football commentator. He is best known as one of the main voices for BBC TV's Match of the Day, culminating in being part of the commentary teams for the 2010, 2014, 2018, and 2022 FIFA World Cups. Bower commentated on New Zealand's historic draw with Italy and Argentina's 4–1 win over South Korea amongst others. He can also be heard on TNT Sports covering the Europa League, Serie A, and the Bundesliga, NBCSN covering the Premier League in the US, and ESPN covering international matches. He is the lead presenter on world feed Premier League Productions and presents Premier League football for Amazon Prime Video UK. Previous work includes Setanta Sports, ESPN UK, and MUTV.
Peter Donald Drury is a British sports commentator who currently works for Sky Sports in the United Kingdom and NBC Sports in the United States as the lead commentator for their Premier League coverage.
Steve Banyard is best known as a football commentator and broadcaster. In particular, he's known for working on the worldwide television feed of the Premier League and Italy's Serie A, as well as major FIFA and UEFA tournaments.
Guy Nicholas Mowbray is an English football commentator, who primarily appears on the BBC and TNT Sports. While working for Eurosport at the 1998 World Cup, he became the youngest ever television commentator on a World Cup final, aged 26.
Ian Darke is an English association football and boxing commentator who currently works for ESPN and TNT Sports. Darke was previously one of Sky's "Big Four" football commentators alongside Martin Tyler, Alan Parry and Rob Hawthorne. He was also the main commentator for Sky's big boxing fights and along with Jim Watt, covered some of the biggest fights involving British boxers.
Jacqueline Anne Oatley is an English broadcaster who works as a football commentator for Sky Sports and other broadcasters, calling games at the FIFA World Cup, Premier League, FA Women's Super League, UEFA Champions League, NWSL and UEFA international matches. She was also a sports presenter on Quest TV covering the English Football League, a podcast host for The Athletic, and is current anchor for ITV Sport's live darts coverage. In 2007, she became the first female commentator on the flagship BBC One football highlights programme Match of the Day, which she also presented once in March 2015.
Rob Palmer is a football commentator and sports broadcaster on Sky Sports, ESPN and other outlets around the world.
Ross Dyer is a British sports and entertainment broadcaster. He is currently a football commentator and presenter for ESPN and Fox Sports in the United States.
This is a timeline of the history of football on television in the UK.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: date and year (link){{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: date and year (link){{cite AV media}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: date and year (link){{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: date and year (link){{cite AV media}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite AV media}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite AV media}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: date and year (link)