Advertisement

Voices of Sport: John Motson - The BBC man who has been commentating on football for nearly half a century

In our weekly series, Yahoo Sport’s Nick Metcalfe features a famous voice of sport. Ahead of another busy Premier League weekend, the long-serving BBC commentator John Motson goes under the spotlight.

Voices of Sport: John Motson - The BBC man who has been commentating on football for nearly half a century

After John Motson announced his retirement at the end of the season, relive Nick Metcalfe's Voices of Sport episode focusing on the BBC commentator.

John Motson has been in our living rooms for so long now, we can hardly imagine football without him.

While some broadcasters define a particular era or generation, Motson is pretty much all things to all people, having commentated on television for the best part of half a century.

From those memorable images of a muddy Hereford in the early 1970s, through countless World Cups and FA Cup finals, and right up to the present day, the man universally known as ‘Motty’ has an ageless and timeless quality.

He has become one of the great constants. Players, managers, stadiums come and go. But not the man with the sheepskin coat in the commentary box. Don’t worry, he’s still there.

The first part of these weekly profiles in my series follow a remarkably similar pattern. Motson, like so many other famous broadcasters, began in newspapers. He started as a reporter in Barnet, north London, in 1963 before joining the Sheffield Morning Telegraph four years later. It was during his time in Sheffield that he covered his beloved football for the first time.

He also made his move into broadcasting, doing some work for BBC Radio Sheffield and then moving to Radio 2 in 1968. Long before the days of a specialist station, like 5 Live, that was the home for sport on the radio. Motson commentated on football, tennis and boxing, and quickly made a name for himself.

He took up a role with Match of the Day in 1971 following the departure of Kenneth Wolstenholme, the man most famous for his “they think it’s all over… it is now” line at the 1966 World Cup final. At that time, Match of the Day was only seven years old but had already become an established Saturday night ritual for millions of fans.

It was a genuine stroke of luck for Motson that an iconic FA Cup match threw him into the spotlight in his first season. It won’t matter what age you are in a way, because you will have seen the footage. The BBC still show it pretty much every season. Hereford against Newcastle in an FA Cup third round replay.

Initially, the game was supposed to be shown in short highlights form after the two main matches. But such was the seismic nature of the shock that it took top billing.

Hereford, of the Southern League, against Newcastle from Division One. The dreams of the non-league team seemed to be slipping away when Malcolm Macdonald headed Newcastle in front. But in a fairytale finish at Edgar Street, Ronnie Radford equalised with a wonderful shot from distance. It must be one of the most replayed goals in the history of TV football. And Motson described it brilliantly.

“Radford again, oh what a goal, what a goal. Radford the scorer. Ronnie Radford. And the crowd… the crowd are invading the pitch. And now it will take some time to clear the field. What a tremendous shot from Radford. He got that ball back and hit it from well outside the penalty area. And no goalkeeper in the world would have stopped that. It fairly flew into the top corner of McFaul’s net.”

That wasn’t the end of the drama of course, with Ricky George scoring the winner for Hereford in extra-time. The match instantly became part of FA Cup folklore. And it was a huge moment for Motson. As he later said: "It changed my life because my boss on Match of the Day realised I could be trusted to commentate on a big match.”

It wasn’t long before Motson became one of the BBC’s top commentators, even though competition was fierce at the time among a host of big names. The legendary David Coleman, who I profiled in August, was the main football commentator as Motson started out, being the man behind the microphone for FA Cup finals and the biggest games at international tournaments.

At the same time, Barry Davies was also establishing himself as a huge presence at the BBC.When I wrote about Davies in June, I detailed the apparent rivalry between him and Motson. It became a genuine disappointment to Davies that as time went on, Motson tended to be given most of the big games, particularly FA Cup finals.

Motson’s first Wembley showpiece was the 1977 clash between old rivals Liverpool and Manchester United. He became a regular companion on those special May days. The FA Cup final wasn’t just a big event for sports fans back then, but the whole country. The build-up was intensive, with coverage beginning not long after breakfast, and audiences for the match were enormous.

The dramas kept coming over the years at Wembley. Alan Sunderland’s late winner giving Arsenal victory over Manchester United. Trevor Brooking’s header that handed West Ham a shock win over the Gunners. Ricky Villa’s wonderful solo winner for Tottenham against Manchester City. The all-Merseyside final. Coventry stunning Spurs.

All were special deposits in the memory banks, and they were all days we spent in Motson’s company. Well, the majority of us that chose to watch the game on the BBC anyway - the great Brian Moore was describing the action for ITV.

One of Motson’s best remembered lines came at the 1988 final, when Wimbledon upset Division One winners Liverpool. He told viewers: “The crazy gang have beaten the culture club.”

Apart from 1994 and 1995 - when Davies was giving the honours - Motson was the BBC man on cup final day when the corporation had the rights. All the way through to the game between Cardiff and Portsmouth in 2008, 31 years after his first final.

It wasn’t just about cup finals for Motson though, far from it. He was with us all season long, primarily on a Saturday night (and for a while a Sunday lunchtime) on Match of the Day.

And every two years, there were the big international tournaments. World Cup finals and European Championships are remembered with particular fondness by older generations, partly because there was so little live televised football back then. Those biannual events, especially World Cups, retained a mystery and a mystique that simply isn’t there any more.

And Motson was a familiar voice at all those tournaments. One game that instantly comes to mind is the classic battle between Italy and Brazil at the 1982 World Cup in Spain. Italy stunned the tournament favourites with a 3-2 win thanks to a Paolo Rossi hat-trick. The occasion was such an emotional one, Motson’s co-commentator Bobby Charlton was said to be in tears after the game.

For me, Motson’s best ever commentary came at the 1984 European Championship. Only two matches at the tournament were shown live in Britain, believe it or not, one of them being the final. There were only highlights for the semi-final between hosts France and Portugal. It turned out to be an unforgettable match, and Motson was in genuinely illuminating and passionate form. A game high in drama was level at 2-2 late in extra-time. Cue Motson.

"Tigana. Two to his right. And Platini through the middle. Tigana again. Tigana. Tigana. Platini. GOAL. Platini for France with a minute to go. It’s 3-2. I’ve not seen a match like this in years.”

That really was Motson at his best, rising to the occasion superbly and matching the rythym of the match with his commentary. It seemed that he was in his pomp in the 1980s.

Motson had plenty of big England moments too, although they tended to be shared out more equally with Davies. He was there for that titanic semi-final clash with West Germany at the 1990 World Cup. And six years later, he described Paul Gascoigne bamboozling Scotland at Wembley with a glorious solo goal at Euro 96.

In 2001, Motson was on duty in Munich for an extraordinary World Cup qualifier, where England beat hosts Germany 5-1. As Michael Owen scored his third goal on that memorable Saturday night, Motson said: “This is getting better and better and better.”

Motson enjoyed brief forays into other sports, including Wimbledon one summer, but unlike Davies he was nearly exclusively a football man. Frankly, he has always lived and breathed the game.

Unfortunately, football has had more than its fair share of tragedies, and Motson was the designated commentator for an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough in April 1989. It was one of the darkest days in the history of English football, with 96 Liverpool fans dying as a result of a crush on the terrace behind one of the goals. Motson later appeared at the Hillsborough Inquiry, as he was a witness on that dreadful day.

Football in this country began to see massive changes. Some of them, like all-seater stadiums, were as a direct result of Hillsborough. The Premier League was created. Games started to be shown live on satellite TV. But Motson carried on doing what he always had.

It’s fair to point out Motson has not been everyone’s cup of tea. Some critics see him as relying more on statistics than reflecting the drama and emotion of matches. It’s certainly clear he goes to matches with a host of facts. There are times you want him to let the game breathe more rather than hitting us with so many stats.

The BBC, despite being the most loyal of employers, may not have always helped his cause over the years, particularly when they have tried to establish him as a character. Remember the pictures of him in his famous coat in the snow before a postponed FA Cup match at Wycombe?

Voices of Sport: John Motson - The BBC man that has been commentating on football for nearly half a century
Voices of Sport: John Motson - The BBC man that has been commentating on football for nearly half a century

Those intentions to promote Motson as a character seemed to come to the fore at the 2002 World Cup in the Far East. Motson was strangely fascinated by the fact that the matches in Japan and Korea were taking place over breakfast in the Britain, regularly telling us to fill up our cereal bowls and get the sausages sizzling.

One thing that nobody could ever dispute however is that Motson’s longevity has been mighty impressive. The 2010 World Cup in South Africa, where he spent much of the time making contributions to the BBC website, was his tenth.

In recent years, Motson has decided to take more of a back seat role. His last international commentary was the Euro 2008 final in Vienna. Spain beat Germany 1-0, and Motson declared: “The senors have become the seniors of European football.”

He still regularly appears on Match of the Day however, sometimes high up the pecking order if the game he is at happens to be a dramatic one. Even now, he has that familiar excitement in his voice and such an obvious relish for the game. His enthusiasm remains one of his best assets. One thing always comes over loud and clear with Motson - his deep and abiding love for football.

He has also commentated on matches for Radio 5 Live in recent times. And to this present day, Motson is a regular guest on the station’s football discussion programme, The Monday Night Club, where he can often be informative and entertaining.

Who knows how long he’ll go on? He is after all only 71. In a couple of years from now, Motson will have been in the broadcasting business for 50 years. Any football fan born in the 1960s or since has never known the game without him. It really has been quite a career.