Steve Wilson (born 1967) /ref> is a British television commentator for
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 ...
matches who works 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 ...
Wilson was born and brought up on the Wirral. He studied a degree in English at the
University of Liverpool
The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a Public university, public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University (United Kingdom), Victoria University, it received Ro ...
. He was present on the Leppings Lane terrace at the time of the
Hillsborough disaster
The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal crowd crush at a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in the tw ...
, in a less populated section. For the 20-year anniversary, he filmed a piece of his experiences for '' Football Focus''.
Career
Radio
After several years working for Capital Gold supporting Jonathan Pearce, Wilson moved to BBC Radio Five Live in the summer of 1998. His first commentary for the network was the opening game of Celtic's title defence in
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
During his first season with the network, Wilson's commentary opportunities were limited, but he impressed enough to be given several outings on ''Match of the Day''. During the 1999–00 season Wilson's role on Five Live was significantly increased as he shared many more matches with the likes of John Murray, Ian Brown and Simon Brotherton. He also continued his occasional work on ''Match of the Day'' and, following Jon Champion's move to ITV in 2001, Wilson became a permanent member of the ''Match of the Day'' team.
Because ITV held rights to
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 ...
highlights between 2001 and 2004, ''Match of the Day'' was more infrequent, covering mainly FA Cup and international matches, meaning Wilson was still able to continue commentating on Five Live during this period. Since the BBC regained the rights to Premier League highlights in 2004, Wilson has been an integral part of the commentary team, and in 2018 he commentated on his first
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 ...
.
Writer
In 2015 Wilson wrote a history of football played during the Premier League era (1992–2015) entitled "Match of the Day 365", published by BBC Books.
Wilson’ obituary for former colleague John Motson was published in The Guardian in February 2023.
Between 2009 and 2012, he also wrote regular blog for the BBC Sport website.
Controversy
In March 2023, Wilson and a few fellow BBC football commentators issued a joint statement in support of Match of the Day host Gary Lineker, who had been suspended by the BBC in a row over impartiality. The commentators pulled out of the Saturday March 11 Match of the Day episode, which subsequently aired with no presenters, pundits or commentary.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/mar/10/gary-lineker-step-back-match-of-the-day-bbc
In coverage of Germany against Brazil in the semi-finals of the
2014 FIFA World Cup
The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for list of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil fr ...
Nazis
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
. He apologized over
Twitter
Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
for his mistake. The BBC received complaints on the issue, and stated "In referring to the German national anthem, commentator Steve Wilson made a genuine mistake which has been acknowledged, and we apologise for any offence caused."
Personal life
Growing up, Wilson lived in walking distance of Prenton Park and became a fan of Tranmere Rovers FC. He now lives in West Sussex with his family.