John Motson: BBC’s voice of football for nearly half a century
Football commentator John Motson died at the age of 77 this week.
John Motson, who has died aged 77, was BBC television’s “voice” of football for almost half a century, commentating for from 1971 until his retirement in 2018 and becoming affectionately known as “Motty”.
“I remember my first game, Liverpool against Chelsea,” he recalled. “They kicked off and my heart sank because I thought, ‘What do I say now?’ I still remember the feeling. I realised I had a lot of work to do.” Alongside the energy and passion he brought to the game, that work was evident in his trademark style of reeling off statistics written on an A4 sheet of card in felt-tip pen for each match. Motson put this “obsession” for facts and figures down to being “terrified of not knowing enough or making a mistake” in his early days. He admitted to “overdosing” on it, and gradually used less background information in his commentaries.
