n Ford's Focus with Daniel Ford

Have you ever tried watching football on the TV on mute? I have and it is rubbish. The reason why is because football is nothing without the commentators.

If you think of some of the most famous football moments of all time the way we remember them is by the words that described them, think of “Some people are on the pitch they think it’s all over…. it is now” as probably the most famous example. Recently we lost arguably the greatest of all the commentators John Motson (better known as ‘Motty’) so this article is a tribute to the great man.

As a child I wanted to be a commentator and therefore I idolised John Motson as the master of all commentators. He was brilliant for so many reasons, but here are just a few. Motty loved his stats, in fact he was often criticised for using them too much during games, when you look back at that now it turns out that we was ahead of his time. Now, whenever you watch a football game you simply can’t escape them, Motson clearly new the importance that they would grow to have. In order to have these stats he had to prepare meticulously and always went to games with copious notes which allowed him to have a stat for every possible outcome. He was someone who worked incredibly hard and this paved the way for him to have unbelievable success.

After Motty passed I listened back to some of his most iconic commentary moments and this reinforced to me what it was that made him so special. The pure excitement in his voice is so infectious and reflected the man’s love for the game. One of my favourite Motty moments is when Paul Gascoigne scored against Scotland at Euro 96 which Motty described with the iconic line “Oh Gascoigne…oh brilliant… Oh yes!”. I just find this moment so absolutely wonderful. Just for a brief minute Motty forgets where he is and what he is doing and is just an England fan watching a player score with a moment of pure genius against the old enemy. I could run through multiple other iconic commentary moments that he had but what makes them all is the excitement he manages to convey, as a fan your excitement builds as your team gets closer to scoring and his commentary crescendos to perfectly reflect this.

When Motty started commentating there were not the plethora of commentators that we have now. There was one match on TV every week and either him or fellow legend Barry Davies voiced it. He is a part of so many people’s childhoods and commentated right through to their adult life. He made thousands of young children over many decades fall in love with football and captured moments for people of all ages which they will never forget in large part thanks to him, he is a legend and will never be forgotten.

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