The World Cup will sound different this year.
Jacqui Oatley will become the first woman play-by-play commentator for U.S. World Cup telecasts, heading one of Foxâs five broadcast teams for the tournament in Qatar that opens Sunday.
Pien Meulensteen, Vicki Sparks and Robyn Cowen are among the broadcasters for matches on BBC in Britain.
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âLoads of people will have negative comments about women and women commentators and thatâs because thatâs just the way that they think. Theyâre not open to hearing anything different,â said Meulensteen, the 25-year-old daughter of former Fulham manager and current Australia assistant coach RenĂ© Meulensteen.
âIâve loved football since I was a kid. I grew up in a footballing house, My dad works in football. My two brothers play football, and we all talk about the same thing, so why not have a female talking about it?â Pien Meulensteen said. âAnd Iâm hoping in time, as well, that weâll just be accepted. It wonât be seen as like, âoh, wow, thereâs a woman thatâs doing commentary.â This should be a normal thing to have females talking about football, just as much as men.â
Oatley, 47, worked the 2018 World Cup for Britainâs ITV as a studio presenter and sideline reporter. She and Meulensteen have become regulars on the Premier Leagueâs world feed, heard in the U.S. on NBCâs networks.
âI found the American audience in particular are fantastic,â Oatley said. âThey seem to be so much more worldly wise and up to date and modern in their thinking and acceptance of women. And I guess thatâs because you have such a successful national team over the years and that you donât have that history of gender prejudice that we have in the UK and traditionally in parts of Europe and elsewhere in the world, South America, Africa, as well.â
World Cup broadcast booths were long dominated by male voices. That started to change four years ago, when in-game analysts included Aly Wagner on Fox, Viviana Vila on Telemundo, Sparks on BBC and Claudia Neumann on Germanyâs ZDF.
FIFA is using color commentators for the first time on its English-language world feed. Its six crews include San Diego Wave coach Casey Stoney and Lucy Ward, both former England players.
Oatley will be paired on Fox with former England defender Warren Barton starting with Denmarkâs match against Tunisia on Tuesday.
âThey bring knowledge and expertise,â said 77-year-old Martin Tyler, about to broadcast his 12th World Cup. âThey only get the work because theyâre very good. Itâs very important to have the connection with the audience, and they bring their own connection. The most important thing is how good they are.â
Five of ESPNâs six play-by-play announcers in 2014 were British but Fox used just one among six in 2018, Derek Rae. This time, three of five are British, with Rae joined by Oatley and Ian Darke.
âWe want the best person available regardless of their gender, regardless of their nationality. Jackie has operated the highest level in the Premier League in England. You donât have to convince anybody of her qualifications,â said David Neal, executive producer of Foxâs World Cup coverage. âShe captures the emotion of the moment. Some play-by-play people are so good and so focused on the technical aspect of what theyâre calling that they donât pay enough attention to whatâs going on in the building.â
Oatley grew up in Wolverhampton listening to Barry Davies, Brian Moore and John Motson. She attended the University of Leeds and was a midfielder for Chiswickâs womenâs team when she dislocated her left knee and ruptured ligaments when trying to keep a ball in play. She was on crutches for 10 months.
Around Christmas in 2001, she decided her job as an accounts manager for an intellectual property company was unfulfilling. She searched the Internet for how to get into broadcasting, took a one night-a-week job doing sports report for hospital radio and enrolled in evening courses in radio production and print journalism. She gave up her day job and her apartment and stayed with friends while learning her new trade and in September 2002 enrolled in a postgraduate journalism program at Sheffield Hallam University. Oatley wrote to local BBC radio stations and when visiting Leeds made contact with the radio sports editor, Derm Tanner
âIâm a mature student in a hurry,â she told him.
She started freelancing, giving match reports on non-league matches and in 2003 broadcast her first game for BBC Radio Leeds, between Wakefield & Emley and Worksop Town in the seventh tier Northern Premier League.
Charles Runcie hired her for BBC Radio 5 Live, first for womenâs matches and then the 2005 Womenâs European Championship. On April 21, 2007, she became the first woman to broadcast BBC One televisionâs âMatch of the Day,â between Fulham and Blackburn.
âUnfortunately it became a bit of a news story because there was one difference between the others and me,â she recalled. âIt was extremely stressful. All my focus through my training of being a journalist, through the match reports, through the commentaries, had always been on telling a story to the audience. Thatâs what I wanted to do, and thatâs what I worked hard at. And to go from that to suddenly becoming the story and to have the camera lenses trained on me instead of on the pitch was something I found really difficult to deal with and something I wasnât really ready for and something I didnât enjoy for a second.â
She became a presenter for the BBCâs coverage of the 2015 European Championship and in September 2021 was hired as commentator for Skyâs coverage of Englandâs Womenâs Super League. Her preparation for Qatar includes bringing her own printer, ink cartridges, two phones and two iPads.
âI donât like to rely on anybody elseâs technology,â she said.
Meulensteen, a 2019 graduate of the University of Salford, worked for BBC Manchester during school and broadcast Manchester Unitedâs womenâs team for MUTV. She started Premier League telecasts last December and her first World Cup broadcast will be Poland-Mexico on BBC One television on Tuesday.
âWomen just as much enjoy watching football, listening to football, playing football,â she said. âTwenty, 30 years ago that wasnât an option for women to watch football and have a female voice. Whereas, you go to a football match, you go to Old Trafford, there are loads of women that are watching football and are interested in it. Women should be allowed to also commentate on menâs football matches. Itâs just allowing that option for other people to be able to listen to a different voice.â
While many are pleased with the breakthroughs, there are unpleasant detractors.
âI turn off all of my notifications on my phone just because there are so many negative comments from all over,â Meulensteen said. âYou donât want to see something that is going to affect you.â