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John Motson (born 1945), known as "Motty" to fans of BBC's Match of the Day, is a British football commentator.
Motson's career began in the newspaper business as a reporter in Barnet and Sheffield, where he first covered Association football. It began to take off when the BBC hired him in 1968 as a sports presenter on Radio 2. Three years later, he replaced Kenneth Wolstenholme at Match of the Day.
In a fifteen-year span, Motson called a total of 29 consecutive championships: World Cups, FA Cups, and European Championships. More recently, he was commentator for the 2002 World Cup. He has also commented on over a thousand matches broadcast on the BBC.
Motson's popularity has extended to the Internet, where BBC Sport Online (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport) created a Mini Motty "desktop toy" to keep fans up to date on action in the Premiership, FA Cup, and other leagues throughout England and Scotland. In 1996, Motson published a book entitled Motty's Diary: A Year In The Life Of A Commentator. Two years later, BBC One gave him his own TV programme, entitled The Full Motty.
When Premiership television highlights moved to ITV in 2001, and MotD was no longer a weekly fixture in the schedules, Motson returned to radio on BBC Radio Five Live's coverage of the Premiership, but continuing to make frequent appearances on MotD and contributions to BBC Sport's website – which he has been doing since the site was launched in July of 2000.
Motson resumed his weekly place on Match of the Day when the rights returned to the BBC in 2004.
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