Michael Robert Ingham MBE (born 24 September 1950 in

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

) is an English

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

commentator and broadcaster.

Early life

He grew up in Duffield and

Quarndon Quarndon is a linear village in the south of the Amber Valley District of Derbyshire, England. It is spread along four minor upland roads, approximately 1 mile north of the Derby suburb of Allestree, two of which lead towards the city. Many t ...

and attended the

Belper School Belper School and Sixth Form Centre is a foundation secondary school located in the north-east of Belper, Derbyshire, England. In October 2019, Ofsted reported that its overall effectiveness is 'Needs Improvement'. It has received Healthy Scho ...

(then The Herbert Strutt School) in

Belper Belper () is a town and civil parish in the local government district of Amber Valley in Derbyshire, England, located about north of Derby on the River Derwent. Along with Belper, the parish includes the village of Milford and the hamlets ...

. He gained a

Bachelor of Law A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

degree.

Career

He began his career working for

BBC Radio Derby BBC Radio Derby is the Local BBC Radio, BBC's local radio station serving Derbyshire and East Staffordshire. It broadcasts on frequency modulation, FM, AM broadcasting, AM, Digital Audio Broadcasting, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from s ...

in 1973, later joining 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 ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in 1979. For some years he regularly hosted the Saturday afternoon sports programme ''Sport on Two'', and for five years he hosted BBC Radio's high-profile Saturday teatime ''

Sports Report ''Sports Report'' is one of the longest-running programmes on British radio, and is the world's longest-running sports radio programme. It started on 3 January 1948, and has always been broadcast from 17:00 on Saturday evenings during the foo ...

''. Around 1984 he also became a match commentator, working alongside Peter Jones and

Bryon Butler Ewart Bryon Butler (5 June 1934 – 26 April 2001) was an English writer and broadcaster, best known as the BBC's football correspondent from 1968 to 1991. He was born in Taunton, Somerset and educated at Taunton School. After working for a ...

. In 1991, he took over from Butler as the BBC's football correspondent.

Five Live

From 1990, Ingham worked alongside Alan Green as

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts mainly news, sport, Talk show, discussion, interviews and phone-ins, and is on air 24 hours a day. It is the principal BBC radio station Broadca ...

's principal commentating pair, working on

FA Cup Final The FA Cup Final is the last match in the FA Cup, Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the List of sports attendance figures, most attended domestic football events in the world, with an official attendance of 89,472 ...

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

finals,

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

finals and virtually all the biggest matches in Britain and throughout the world, with many of his commentaries also being heard on the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is a British Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcas ...

. He is noted for his measured, eloquent style, often seen as something of a throwback to earlier days of sports broadcasting. He also commentated on the BBC's coverage of

Princess Diana Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997), was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William ...

's funeral in 1997. In 2004, Ingham was promoted as chief football correspondent, becoming renowned with fans for "thinking aloud" when offering his opinion on the football matters of the day. After the

2014 World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

, Ingham retired from his role as correspondent and commentator.

Personal life

As of 2014, Ingham resided in

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

. Ingham grew up as a supporter of Derby County F.C. Ingham was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(MBE) in the

2010 Birthday Honours The 2010 Birthday Honours for the Commonwealth realms were announced to celebrate the Queen's Birthday on 7 June 2010 in New Zealand, on 12 June 2010 in the United Kingdom, The Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Sai ...

for services to sports broadcasting.

References

External links

Mike Ingham biography
on BBC Radio website
BBC World Cup 2006 Press release
(PDF file, 4MB) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ingham, Mike 1950 births Living people BBC Radio 5 Live presenters English association football commentators English sports broadcasters Members of the Order of the British Empire People from Duffield People from Quarndon People from Chiltern District