34 Facts About Jacqui Oatley

Jacqueline Anne Oatley was born on 28 December 1974 and is an English broadcaster who works as a football commentator for TNT Sports UK and other broadcasters, calling games at the FIFA World Cup, Premier League, FA Women's Super League, UEFA Champions League, NWSL and UEFA international matches.

Jacqui Oatley was a sports presenter on Quest TV covering the English Football League, a podcast host for The Athletic, and is current anchor for ITV Sport's live darts coverage.

Jacqui Oatley's late father Gerald was the managing director of a large gas appliance company, and her mother Sonja is a retired nurse who was born and brought up in South Africa, where her parents were Norwegian missionaries.

Jacqui Oatley attended the all-girls junior school, St Dominic's in Brewood, Staffordshire.

Jacqui Oatley passed her A-Levels at Wolverhampton Grammar School, and studied at University of Leeds, graduating with a degree in German in 1996.

Jacqui Oatley spent a year travelling the world, and then moved to London to work in intellectual property as a sales and marketing manager, then key account manager.

Jacqui Oatley initially studied print journalism and radio production at evening classes while broadcasting on hospital radio.

Jacqui Oatley then gave up her intellectual property management job as well as her flat, spent a summer sleeping on friends' floors whilst doing journalism work experience full-time.

Jacqui Oatley undertook a Postgraduate Diploma in Broadcast Journalism at Sheffield Hallam University.

Jacqui Oatley worked as a news reporter in her native West Midlands with BBC Radio WM, before moving back to London to work as a sports reporter for BBC London 94.9.

Jacqui Oatley joined BBC Radio 5 Live in 2003 and became the first woman to commentate on a football match on British network radio in 2005, covering the England women's internationals at the 2005 UEFA Women's Championship.

Jacqui Oatley became the first female football commentator in the history of BBC football programme Match of the Day, with her debut broadcast on 21 April 2007 for the Premier League match between Fulham and Blackburn Rovers.

Jacqui Oatley has since commentated on several further games for Match of the Day.

Jacqui Oatley provided live commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live for matches of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

Jacqui Oatley was one of BBC Television's reporters with the Great Britain women's Olympic football team for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Jacqui Oatley resumed her association football play-by-play commentary career in 2019 when she commentated seven 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup matches for the Host Broadcast Services "world feed" on-site from Roazhon Park in Rennes, France.

Jacqui Oatley became the lead play-by-play commentator for FA Women's Super League matches on Sky Sports in the UK in September 2021.

In March 2023, Jacqui Oatley joined the play-by-play commentary team for the National Women's Soccer League on television in the United States, commuting for the role from Surrey.

Jacqui Oatley has presented sports news on BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 4, as well as more frequently on BBC Radio 5 Live.

Jacqui Oatley has covered the World Snooker Championship, British Moto GP, Open Championship golf, and various other sports such as tennis and rugby league.

Jacqui Oatley presented and commentated for the children's television show Level Up during the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany and reported for BBC Television at the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup in China.

Jacqui Oatley commentated on live football matches for BBC Television during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Jacqui Oatley was a regular sports presenter on the BBC News Channel between 2011 and 2013, fronted The FA WSL Show in 2012 for ESPN, and anchored the BBC's live women's football coverage, including the UEFA Women's Euro 2013,2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, and Women's Football Show on BBC in 2015.

In 2013 and 2014 Jacqui Oatley hosted Late Kick Off on BBC One in London and the South East, and was a reporter on Football Focus and Final Score on BBC One and a Premier League presenter on their worldwide television channel, produced by IMG.

Jacqui Oatley has fronted The Football League Show, completing the set of five broadcast roles on the show, and World Football Focus.

Jacqui Oatley has been the darts anchor for ITV Sport since 2015, hosting their live international PDC events.

Jacqui Oatley had previously presented ITV's 2015 Africa Cup of Nations coverage and in 2014 anchored their FA Cup highlights programmes.

Jacqui Oatley has been a studio guest pundit on TV2 in Norway and The Guardian's Football Weekly podcast.

Jacqui Oatley hosted coverage of matches and highlights for UEFA Euro 2016 and the 2018 FIFA World Cup for ITV Sport as a main studio presenter and pitchside reporter, and was a live match commentator for the host broadcaster's world TV feed on-site at the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup in France.

Jacqui Oatley appeared regularly on Sky Sports programming as a match reporter on Soccer Saturday and has stand-in presented Goals on Sunday and Sunday Supplement, where she took over from Neil Ashton on 14 January 2020 until the show was cancelled following the COVID-19 lockdown.

Jacqui Oatley was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to broadcasting and diversity in sport.

In September 2016, Jacqui Oatley was made an Honorary Doctor of Letters at the University of Wolverhampton for her contribution to sports broadcasting.

Jacqui Oatley gave birth to daughter Phoebe in 2011 and son Max in 2014.

Jacqui Oatley's cousin in South Africa was a Springboks cricket selector, while his brother was a rally driver who twice won the Roof of Africa.