Soccer

‘RIP Motty’ - Football commentator John Motson has died at the age of 77

Motson enjoyed a distinguished career with the BBC, covering 29 FA Cup finals and 10 World Cups

BBC Sport commentator John Motson hung up his microphone at the end of the 2017-18 season. Photograph: PA
BBC Sport commentator John Motson hung up his microphone at the end of the 2017-18 season. Photograph: PA
Thu Feb 23 2023 - 10:20

The football commentator John Motson has died at the age of 77. Motson worked for 50 years for the BBC and commentated on more than 2,500 games on television and radio.

Motson, often associated with his sheepskin coat and known as “Motty”, covered 10 World Cups, 10 European Championships and 29 FA Cup finals for the BBC before retiring from the broadcaster in 2018. His final game for Match of the Day was that year.

He joined the BBC in 1968 and famously commentated on Hereford’s FA Cup giantkilling against Newcastle in 1972. The fixture took top billing on Match of the Day, pushing him into the spotlight and the affections of the sporting public. He commentated on his sixth World Cup final in Germany in 2006.

[ John Motson had an untamed love for football’s nooks and its crannies - he was a figure who defined an era ]

Motson, born in Salford, Lancashire, started as a newspaper reporter in Barnet and at the Sheffield Morning Telegraph before joining the BBC as a sports presenter on Radio 2.

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His career also took in two Olympic Games and Wimbledon’s memorable 1988 FA Cup final triumph against Liverpool at Wembley, when he said the Crazy Gang had beaten the Culture Club. He was awarded the OBE by the queen of England in 2001 for services to broadcasting.

Motson’s family released a short statement that said: “It is with great sadness that we announce that John Motson OBE died peacefully in his sleep today.”

Motson’s career also took in some of football’s darkest moments. In 1989 he was at Hillsborough as the disaster unfolded at the stadium. It was his voice that accompanied much of the news footage of that day and he gave evidence to the coroner’s inquest into the tragedy in 1991.

In 2017 Motson explained to the Guardian publication of his decision to step down at the end of that season: “I just thought my 50th year in the BBC is 2018 and it has to end some time and I thought that would be a good note to go out,” he said. “I also don’t want to go into the area where people say: ‘He’s been there too long, he’s lost it, he’s not what he was.’ I wanted to go out while I was still commentating as well – or as badly – as I have for all those years. I didn’t want to carry on and then people say: ‘Oh dear me, we’ll have to get rid of him.’”

The BBC presenter and former England international Gary Lineker tweeted: “Deeply saddened to hear that John Motson has died. A quite brilliant commentator and the voice of football in this country for generations. He’ll be very much missed. RIP Motty.” – Guardian