Guy Mowbray
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Guy Mowbray is a football commentator on British television, currently with the BBC. Emerging in the mid-nineties through the Clubcall network - a series of premium rate phone lines containing club information and commentaries - he went on to join BBC Radio York. There he covered rugby league, cricket and football before moving on to commercial station Sun FM in Sunderland and then to Metro Radio in Newcastle.
Whilst at Metro Radio and he started commentating on Sunderland AFC's matches alongside summariser Eric Gates. During this time he became sports editor and won Sony and EMAP Radio Awards.
In April 1997 he made his debut as a commentator with Eurosport. In little over a year he became their primary commentator, leading the team (which included Archie MacPherson, Angus Loughran, Tim Caple and Mike Vince) at the 1998 World Cup in France. At 26 he became the youngest broadcaster to commentate on the World Cup Final for television, and also picked up the Newcomer of the Year award from the Royal Television Society.
Mowbray departed Eurosport and Metro Radio in 1999 to join ITV. In five years with the network he covered live Champions League, Football League and Italian matches. He was a leading member of the commentary team on the ill-fated ITV Sports Channel. He also contributed commentaries at Euro 2000 and Euro 2004 as well as the 2002 World Cup. ITV also held the rights to Premiership highlights for three seasons and Mowbray was a regular commentator alongside Clive Tydesley, Peter Drury and Jon Champion on the Saturday Night highlights show.
However with the loss of Premiership highlights to BBC in 2004 Mowbray found his prospects at ITV limited and turned freelance, gaining regular work with the Beeb on Match Of The Day. Due to a change in format, the BBC send commentators to all the Premiership matches played on a Saturday, so Mowbray has been able to commentate on a Premiership match virtually on a weekly basis. After a slow beginning Mowbray has established himself in the BBC team and has been afforded live match opportunities in the FA Cup, as well as travelling to the 2006 World Cup and the women's World Cup in China in autumn 2007. Mowbray's current position is slightly ambiguous, but he is highly regarded and is believed to be in a three-way battle with colleagues Jonathan Pearce and Steve Wilson to succeed current number one John Motson when he retires. [1]
Alongside his BBC commitments Guy has also contributed frequently to Eurosport's coverage since 2004 and has occasionally covered matches for Setanta Sports.
Guy lives in York with his family.
