Guy Mowbray talks about his new BBC football show Late Kick Off

10:39am Wednesday 13th January 2010

By Steve Carroll

GUY Mowbray has put his foot down. It might be a Late Kick Off for the York-based Match Of The Day commentator, who is getting ready for a first stint in front of the camera on Monday nights – but he’s determined viewers won’t miss any of the action.

And that’s meant an early conflab about the team who ply their trade at Bootham Crescent.

Because BBC1’s new magazine show, which kicks off on Monday at 11.15pm, is aimed at featuring in-depth coverage of the 12 Yorkshire teams in the Football League.

“Being born and bred in York and having watched York City all my life, I did say to the producers – and they agreed – that we’ve got to mention York City because that’s a whole chunk of the region,” he said.

“It won’t be long before they are back in the League anyway. We’ve got to follow their progress, we can’t just ignore them.”

Mowbray will be presenting a ‘regionalised Football Focus’. Where the Football League show blasts through the highlights, with barely a breath, Late Kick Off aims to take a more leisurely stroll.

“We are going to look at the news stories behind the clubs, what’s going on, and we will get round all the clubs looking at features, profiling players,” he said.

“I am excited about taking on a totally different job. The only thing in common with commentating is the football knowledge and hopefully that will shine through.”

Mowbray, of course, is best known for his work behind the microphone. His rise in the commentator’s box was meteoric.

Initially reporting on York City matches for the Clubcall phone line network, he enjoyed a stint at Radio York and regional radio stations before moving to Metro Radio, in Newcastle.

It was there he really cemented his career – commentating on Sunderland matches alongside the former Black Cat and Ipswich midfielder Eric Gates.

“For four years of my life I didn’t miss a game,” Mowbray said. “The 1997/8 season was probably the greatest of my life. That was when my career really started to take off.

“The season ended with the play-off final against Charlton (where Sunderland lost 7-6 on penalties following a 4-4 draw) which was just magnificent. It’s still the best game I have ever seen.”

Mowbray is, ‘allegedly’ as he puts it when asked, the youngest broadcaster ever to commentate on a World Cup final for television – taking charge of France’s 3-0 win over Brazil in the Stade de France in Paris in 1998 – at the age of 26.

“Eurosport were one of the host broadcasters and that was my first big tournament,” he said. “I remember getting a phone call and it said ‘here’s your schedule for the World Cup’ and it was their French secretary who rang me up, Eva, and she went through all the games and then she said ‘and July 12 you are doing the final in Paris with Trevor Steven’.

“I said ‘sorry?’ because I’d only been working for them for a few months.

“It was magnificent. I was so pleased France won that World Cup – if it couldn’t have been England it had to be France for me because I’d just started spending a big chunk of my life there. The atmosphere just built and built and Zidane is still my all-time footballer.”

From radio and Eurosport came a shift to ITV where five years were spent covering the Champions League, Football League and Italian matches. But as the noughties marched on, ITV’s football contracts largely went elsewhere. So did Mowbray, to the BBC, where he has been ever since.

He’s a veteran of the big tournaments and will be making his way to South Africa in the summer as England bid to finally end the jinx of 1966.

But there’s a lot of football to come between now and then and that means graft.

You might not see the sheepskin coat, or the rooms full of old football annuals but, make no mistake, when Mowbray picks up the microphone he is prepared.

“You do far too much every game,” he explained. “For every game, even highlights, I would say there is two days’ worth of hard preparation.

“You have to know everything there is about the two teams, the form, the players. A lot of people watch videos but I tend to find I watch so much football I don’t need to do that, particularly Premier League, but I might in the World Cup.”

Mowbray’s last game, before the chill, was December 27 and Hull against Manchester United. On his computer, and a precious memory stick, are the files which form the backbone of his job.

It’s an innocuous looking document – until you look at what is on the pages.

Mowbray said: “I’ll have the two teams, their league position, their current form, any glaring facts. Leading goalscorers, next fixtures, what they did last season, the head-to-head record to see if there are any glitches.

“I look at the referee, the team news, who is injured, details on the manager, the history of the clubs and anything that stands out, top scorers over history, players who have played together for former clubs.”

You could get lost in the maze but “you get used to it” soothes the commentator.

“If you have got three games in a week, and you have to do all this, it gets full time but I love it.”

“Fabio (Capello) is doing an amazing job and I genuinely think we can win it,” Mowbray insisted. “People say ‘well what about Spain, what about Brazil?’ but the best team rarely wins the World Cup.

“We’ve never had the luck and have never performed when it really mattered. I think you could bracket five or six teams and say they have a chance of winning and England would be as strong as anybody.”

Maybe Mowbray will find himself talking about England at another World Cup final in seven months’ time.