Guy Nicholas Mowbray (born 16 February 1972) is an English football and UFC commentator, who primarily appears on the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

and

TNT Sports TNT Sports is the brand name for sports television channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world that are owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). The name originates from the American cable television ...

. While working for

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia, owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery through its WBD Sports unit, it operates two main channels—Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...

at the

1998 World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

, he became the youngest ever television commentator on a World Cup final, aged 26.

Early life

Guy Nicholas Mowbray was born on 16 February 1972 in

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

, Yorkshire. His career began in the mid-1990s through the ClubCall network, a series of premium rate phone lines containing club information and commentaries. He joined

BBC Radio York BBC Radio York is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of North Yorkshire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios in the Bootham area of York. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience ...

where he covered rugby league, cricket and football. He then moved to commercial station

Sun FM Sun FM may refer to: * Nation Radio North East's previous name * Sun FM (Sri Lanka), an English language radio station based in Sri Lanka * CICF-FM, a Canadian radio station, broadcasting at 105.7 FM in Vernon, British Columbia, using the on-air br ...

in Sunderland and then to

Metro Radio Hits Radio North East, formerly Metro Radio, is an Independent Local Radio station, owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK as part of the Hits Radio network. The station launched in 1974 as Metro Radio. It broadcasts to County Durham, No ...

in Newcastle. Whilst at Metro Radio he started commentating on

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

's matches alongside summariser Eric Gates. During this time he became sports editor and won Sony and EMAP Radio Awards.

Broadcasting career

Eurosport (1997–1999)

In April 1997 Mowbray made his television debut with

. In little over a year he became their primary commentator

in France. At 26 he became the youngest broadcaster to commentate on the World Cup final for television. He also picked up the Newcomer of the Year award from the Royal Television Society.

ITV (1999–2004)

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 Sport Channel ITV Sport Channel was a short-lived digital sport television channel, that was owned by Carlton Communications and Granada plc. It was launched on 11 August 2001 and closed on 12 May 2002, precipitating ITV Digital's collapse over a month later. ...

. He also contributed commentaries at

Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament was ...

and

Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. Th ...

as well as the

2002 World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea/Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

. ITV also held the rights to Premiership highlights for three seasons and Mowbray was a regular commentator alongside

Clive Tyldesley Clive Tyldesley (born 21 August 1954) is an English television sports broadcaster. He was ITV's senior football commentator from 1998 until 2020. In that role, he led the ITV commentary team at five World Cups and five European Championships an ...

Peter Drury Peter Donald Drury (born 24 September 1967) is a British sports commentator who currently works for Sky Sports in the United Kingdom and NBC Sports in the United States as the lead commentator for their Premier League coverage. Drury was former ...

and

Jon Champion Jonathan Martin Champion (born 23 May 1965) is a British sports commentator currently working as an association football commentator for ESPN and NBC Sports. Champion is a well-established and experienced commentator who has also worked for the ...

on the Saturday night highlights show.

BBC (2004–present)

However, with the loss of Premiership highlights to the BBC in 2004, Mowbray found his prospects at ITV limited and turned freelance, gaining regular work with the corporation on ''

Match of the Day ''Match of the Day'' (abbreviated to ''MOTD'') is a Association football, football highlights programme, typically broadcast on BBC One on Saturday nights during the Premier League season. ''Match of the Day'' is one of the BBC's longest-runn ...

''. Due to a change in format, the BBC send commentators to all the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

matches played on a Saturday, so he has been able to commentate on a Premier League match virtually every week. 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, Euro 2008 and the women's World Cup in China in autumn 2007. Alongside his BBC commitments Mowbray has also contributed frequently to Eurosport's coverage since 2004 and has occasionally covered matches for

Setanta Sports Setanta Sports Media is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland and in Tbilisi, Georgia, broadcasting throughout select Eurasian countries, and the Philippines. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Iris ...

. From January 2010 until 2014, he hosted the Yorkshire & Lincolnshire edition of the BBC's regional football show ''

Late Kick Off ''Late Kick Off'' is a BBC One regional television football programme which was broadcast between 2010 and 2015. Launched on 18 January 2010, it covered Football League teams on a regional or pan-regional basis in a magazine-style format. The sh ...

'', and the following month he commentated on the BBC's live coverage of the 2010 Football League Cup Final. He also commentated on the 2011 and 2012 finals. Mowbray was the chosen commentator for the BBC's coverage of England games at the

2010 World Cup The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...

following the retirement of

John Motson John Walker Motson (10 July 1945 – 23 February 2023) was an English football commentator. Beginning as a television commentator with the BBC in 1971, he commentated on over 2000 games on television and radio. From the late 1970s to 2008, Mo ...

from live commentary duties. He went on to commentate on England during Euro 2012 including England's eventual quarter-final shoot-out defeat to Italy. He was also chosen by the BBC to commentate the BBC's coverage of the

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

matches in the

Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe organised by the Union of E ...

tournament. In 2024 and 2025, Mowbray commentated on the revived edition of hit game show ''

Gladiators A gladiator ( , ) was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their ...

''.

BT Sport (2015–present)

Since

BT Sport TNT Sports (formerly BT Sport) is a group of pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe, Warner Bros. Discovery and BT Group, they first launched as B ...

acquired the domestic exclusive rights for the

UEFA club competitions UEFA club competitions, referred improperly by the mass media as European football, are the set of club tournaments organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), generally in professional and amateur association football and fu ...

for the UK and

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

from ITV and

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

, Mowbray returned his Champions League commentaries since covering the network in 1999 for some matches on their channels.

IMG (2016–present)

Since the start of 2016–17 season, Mowbray went to commentate for the

English-language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

and the

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

world feed commentary for the international viewers outside of the countries with the exclusive rights, but on the 2020 final, he replaced Tony Jones for the Champions League final live commentary duties. As part of his work for IMG, Mowbray commentated on

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in the North East Wales, north-east of Wales. It lies between the Cambrian Mountains, Welsh mountains and the lower River Dee, Wales, Dee Valley, near the England–Wales border, borde ...

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

ties on US television network

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

Personal life

Mowbray continues to live in Haxby, York with his family. He plays cricket regularly for Bishopthorpe Cricket Club second team, and occasionally for the first team. He is a supporter of York City Football Club.

Awards

* 1998

Sony Radio Academy Award The Radio Academy Awards, started in 1983, were the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. For most of their existence, they were run by ZAFER Associates, but in latter years were brought under the control of The Radio Academy ...

(for Metro Radio commentary on Sunderland v Charlton play-off final) * 1999 Best Newcomer in TV Sport

Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mowbray, Guy 1972 births Living people Sportspeople from York English association football commentators BBC sports presenters and reporters Television personalities from Yorkshire