Jacqui Oatley


Jacqueline Anne Oatley is an English broadcaster. She is a sports presenter, hosting football and darts for ITV Sport and is best known for being the first female commentator on the flagship BBC One football highlights programme Match of the Day — which she went on to present in March 2015. She anchored the Euro 2016 football tournament for ITV Sport and will front their 2018 FIFA World Cup coverage. An FA qualified football coach, an ambassador for Women in Football and a committee member of the Football Writers' Association, Oatley was the UK's first female darts presenter, covering Professional Darts Corporation tournaments on ITV4 and then a presenter of the BBC's flagship sports news radio show, Sportsweek, on BBC Radio 5 Live. She was the first female to do so. In August 2015, Oatley was named the eighth most influential woman in sport by The Independent.
As well as Match of the Day, she has also fronted Final Score for the BBC and The Football League Show, completing the set of five broadcast roles on the show, and World Football Focus. She is football and darts anchor for ITV Sport, hosting their live international events. She had previously presented ITV's 2015 Africa Cup of Nations coverage and in 2014 anchored their FA Cup highlights programmes.
Oatley fronted the BBC's live women's football coverage; she anchored the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, the UEFA Women's Euro 2013 and the BBC Women's Football Show. She is a studio guest pundit on TV2 in Norway and the Guardian Football Weekly podcast.
Oatley was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to broadcasting and diversity in sport. The award was recognition of her work behind the scenes championing the role of women working in football as well as women's football.
In September 2016, Oatley was made an Honorary Doctor of Letters at the University of Wolverhampton for her contribution to sports broadcasting.

Biography

Oatley was born in Wolverhampton in 1975. She was brought up in Codsall, South Staffordshire. Her late father Gerald was the managing director of a large gas appliance company; her mother Sonja is a retired nurse who was born and brought up in South Africa, where her parents were Norwegian missionaries. Her cousin in South Africa was a Springboks cricket selector, while his brother was a rally driver who twice won the Roof of Africa.

Education

In her childhood, Oatley developed a love of watching and playing football. She is a fan of Wolverhampton Wanderers. She attended the all-girls junior school, St Dominic's in Brewood, Staffordshire. Oatley passed her A-Levels at Wolverhampton Grammar School, and studied at University of Leeds, graduating with a degree in German in 1996.
Oatley spent a year travelling the world, and then moved to London to work in intellectual property as a Sales and Marketing Manager, then Key Account Manager. While playing amateur football for Chiswick Ladies Football Club, Oatley sustained a dislocated knee cap and ruptured ligaments, which resulted in a reconstruction operation and ten months recovering on crutches. With further operations to follow, she was told she would no longer be able to play sport. That news prompted her decision to change career and train to become a journalist, with the aim of working in sport – particularly her beloved football.

Journalism career

Oatley initially studied print journalism and radio production at evening classes while broadcasting on hospital radio. She then gave up her intellectual property management job as well as her flat, spent a summer sleeping on friends' floors whilst doing journalism work experience full-time. She undertook a Postgraduate Diploma in Broadcast Journalism at Sheffield Hallam University. While studying she joined BBC Radio Leeds as a sports reporter, continuing to work there after graduation. Her first commentary was on a match between Wakefield & Emley and Worksop Town in the Unibond League.
Oatley also worked as a news reporter in her native West Midlands with BBC WM, before moving back to London to work as a sports reporter for BBC London 94.9. She joined BBC Radio 5 Live in 2003 and became the first woman to commentate on a football match on British network radio in 2005, covering the England women's internationals at the 2005 UEFA Women's Championship. Her subsequent interview with UEFA President Lennart Johansson became an international news story due to his controversial comments on women's football.
Oatley became the first female football commentator in the history of BBC football programme Match of the Day, with her debut broadcast on 21 April 2007 for the Premier League match between Fulham F.C. and Blackburn Rovers F.C.. She has since commentated on several further games for Match of the Day.
Oatley was the Austria-based reporter for BBC Television at Euro 2008, reported and commentated at the Women's World Cup in China in 2007 and presented and commentated on a television show Level Up during the World Cup in Germany in 2006. She commentated on live football matches for BBC Television during the Beijing Olympics. In September 2009, she commentated on the Euro 2009 final between Germany and England and did several live commentaries for BBC Radio 5 Live at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. She was BBC Television reporter with the Great Britain women's Olympic football team for the 2012 Summer Olympics.
In 2013 and 2014 Oatley hosted Late Kick Off on BBC One in London and the South East and anchored UEFA Women's Euro 2013. She is also a reporter on Football Focus and Final Score on BBC One and has been a Premier League presenter on their worldwide television channel, produced by IMG.
She was a regular sports presenter on the BBC News Channel between 2011 and 2013.
She presented live Women's World Cup games for the BBC, in 2015.
After the birth of her daughter in 2011, Oatley went freelance and fronted The FA WSL Show in 2012 for ESPN. She also has a son who was born in 2014.
She has previously presented sports news on BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 4, as well as more frequently on BBC Radio 5 Live. She has covered the World Snooker Championship, British Moto GP, Open Championship golf, and various other sports such as tennis and rugby league.
Oatley has also appeared on Sky Sports programming, including stand-in presenting on Goals on Sunday and Sunday Supplement. She was announced as the new presenter of Sunday Supplement, taking over from Neil Ashton, on 14 January 2020.