Jacqui Oatley | |
|---|---|
| Born | Jacqueline Anne Oatley Wolverhampton,West Midlands, England |
| Education | St Dominic's,Brewood Wolverhampton Grammar School |
| Alma mater | University of Leeds Sheffield Hallam University |
| Occupation | Broadcaster |
| Years active | 2002–present |
| Employer | Freelance |
| Known for | Sports presenting and commentating |
| Spouse | Jamie |
| Children | 2 |
Jacqueline Anne OatleyMBE[1] (born 28 December 1974) is an English broadcaster who works as afootball commentator forTNT Sports UK and other broadcasters, calling games at theFIFA World Cup,Premier League,FA Women's Super League,UEFA Champions League, NWSL and UEFA international matches. She was also a sports presenter onQuest TV covering theEnglish Football League, a podcast host forThe Athletic, and is current anchor forITV Sport's live darts coverage. In 2007, she became the first female commentator on the flagshipBBC One football highlights programmeMatch of the Day,[2] which she also presented once in March 2015.
In August 2015, Oatley was named the eighth most influential woman in sport byThe Independent.[3]
Oatley was born inWolverhampton[4] on 28 December 1974.[1] She was brought up inCodsall,South Staffordshire. Her late father Gerald was the managing director of a large gas appliance company, and her mother Sonja is a retired nurse who was born and brought up in South Africa, where her parents were Norwegianmissionaries.[2]
In her childhood, Oatley developed a love of watching and playing football.[2] She attended the all-girls junior school,St Dominic's inBrewood, Staffordshire. Oatley passed herA-Levels atWolverhampton Grammar School,[2] and studied atUniversity of Leeds, graduating with a degree in German in 1996.[5]
Oatley spent a year travelling the world,[6] and then moved to London to work in intellectual property[7] as a sales and marketing manager, then key account manager. While playing amateur football for Chiswick Ladies Football Club, Oatley sustained a dislocatedknee cap and rupturedligaments, which resulted in a reconstruction operation and ten months recovering on crutches.[8] 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 football.[9]
Oatley initially studied print journalism and radio production at evening classes while broadcasting onhospital 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 (PgDip) in Broadcast Journalism atSheffield Hallam University.[10] While studying she joinedBBC Radio Leeds as a sports reporter, continuing to work there after graduation. Her first commentary was on a match betweenWakefield & Emley andWorksop Town in theUnibond League.[11]
Oatley also worked as a news reporter in her nativeWest Midlands withBBC WM, before moving back to London to work as a sports reporter forBBC London 94.9.[12]
She joinedBBC 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 the2005 UEFA Women's Championship.[13] Her subsequent interview withUEFA PresidentLennart Johansson became an international news story due to his controversial comments on women's football.[14]
Oatley became the first female football commentator in the history ofBBC football programmeMatch of the Day, with her debut broadcast on 21 April 2007 for thePremier League match betweenFulham andBlackburn Rovers.[15] She has since commentated on several further games forMatch of the Day.
In September 2009, she commentated on theUEFA Women's Euro 2009 final between Germany and England.[citation needed] She provided live commentary onBBC Radio 5 Live for matches of the2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.[16] She was one of BBC Television's reporters with theGreat Britain women's Olympic football team for the2012 Summer Olympics.[17]
Oatley resumed her association football play-by-play commentary career in 2019 when she commentated seven2019 FIFA Women's World Cup matches for the Host Broadcast Services (HBS) "world feed" on-site fromRoazhon Park inRennes, France.[18]
Oatley became the lead play-by-play commentator forFA Women's Super League (WSL) matches onSky Sports in the UK in September 2021.[19] She stepped down from that role at the end of the 2022-2023 WSL season in May 2023 after she was hired byCBS Sports (USA) as the lead television main commentator (play-by-play) for theNWSL in March 2023.
In 2022,Fox Sports hired Oatley as a main play-by-play commentator for United States broadcasts of the2022 FIFA World Cup, becoming the first woman to serve in that role for the tournament's U.S. broadcast.[20][8]
In March 2023, Oatley joined the play-by-play commentary team for theNational Women's Soccer League on television in the United States,[21] commuting for the role from Surrey.[12]
In May 2024,Fox Sports hired Oatley as one of four lead commentators for theUEFA Euro 2024 tournament.[22]
Oatley has presented sports news onBBC Radio 1,BBC Radio 2 andBBC Radio 4, as well as more frequently onBBC Radio 5 Live. She has covered theWorld Snooker Championship, BritishMoto GP,Open Championship golf, and various other sports such as tennis andrugby league.[citation needed]
Oatley presented and commentated for the children's television showLevel Up during the2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany[23] and reported for BBC Television at the2007 FIFA Women's World Cup in China.[24] She commentated on live football matches for BBC Television during the2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.[25]
She was a regular sports presenter on theBBC News Channel between 2011 and 2013,[26] frontedTheFA WSL Show in 2012 forESPN (UK),[27] and anchored the BBC's live women's football coverage, including theUEFA Women's Euro 2013,2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, andWomen's Football Show on BBC in 2015.[26] In 2013 and 2014 Oatley also hostedLate Kick Off onBBC One in London and the South East,[28] and was a reporter onFootball Focus andFinal Score onBBC One and aPremier League presenter on their worldwide television channel, produced byIMG.[citation needed]
She has also frontedThe Football League Show, completing the set of five broadcast roles on the show, and WorldFootball Focus. She has been the darts anchor forITV Sport since 2015, hosting their live international PDC events. She had previously presented ITV's 2015Africa Cup of Nations coverage and in 2014 anchored theirFA Cup highlights programmes.[citation needed] She has been a studio guest pundit onTV2 in Norway andThe Guardian'sFootball Weekly podcast.[citation needed]
Oatley hosted coverage of matches and highlights forUEFA Euro 2016[29] and the2018 FIFA World Cup forITV Sport as a main studio presenter and pitchside reporter,[30] and was a live match commentator for the host broadcaster's world TV feed on-site at the2019 FIFA Women's World Cup in France.[8]
Oatley appeared regularly onSky Sports programming as a match reporter onSoccer Saturday and has stand-in presentedGoals on Sunday[31] andSunday Supplement, where she took over fromNeil Ashton on 14 January 2020 until the show was cancelled following the COVID-19 lockdown.[32][33]
In the summer of 2021, she co-hosted theBBC Radio 5 Live5 Live Drive news show withTony Livesey.[citation needed]
She was appointedMember of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the2016 New Year Honours for services to broadcasting and diversity in sport.[34] 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 HonoraryDoctor of Letters at theUniversity of Wolverhampton for her contribution to sports broadcasting.[35]
Oatley is married to Jamie.[36] They live inSurrey. She gave birth to daughter Phoebe in 2011 and son Max in 2014.[7] Her cousin in South Africa was aSpringbokscricket selector, while his brother was arally driver who twice won the Roof of Africa.[37]