The Match of the Day presenter opened up about being sidelined in the course of the event in Germany, with the setback almost ending her TV profession earlier than she joined the BBC
BBC Sport presenter Gabby Logan(Image: PA)
Gabby Logan thought her tv profession had ended after being “sidelined” by a earlier employer.
Today, the Welsh presenter is without doubt one of the BBC’s high abilities, fronting this yr’s Six Nations protection and taking on from Gary Lineker as one in every of three presenters on Match of the Day. She is without doubt one of the most esteemed figures in sports activities broadcasting.
However, the journey to the top hasn’t been clean crusing for the 52-year-old, who questioned her future within the trade and even contemplated a profession swap after her former ITV boss selected to “demote” her in the course of the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
Logan was initially set to current England’s group stage matches in opposition to Sweden and Trinidad and Tobago on the event in Germany, however a reshuffle noticed Steve Rider take over this position.
Instead, she was demoted to cowl much less high-profile matches, a choice which already knocked her confidence earlier than she was faraway from the protection and told “don’t come back” after planning to return house for a couple of days in the course of the event.
Speaking on Kate Thornton’s White Wine Question Time podcast, she shared: “I think I had a rough ride in my early thirties in my career, and I can’t believe that’s nearly 20 years ago. At the time, I thought it was going to be the end of my career.
“When I used to be leaving ITV and given one other probability by the BBC… as a result of even in my early 30s, I felt I’d already had this actually lengthy profession and I’d finished a great deal of nice stuff. I’d been at Sky to begin off with and went to ITV and did a great deal of sensible issues.
“But I kind of felt I was maybe going to have to shift and do something completely different, because I had a boss that wasn’t really into me and wanted to slightly demote me. He took me off a World Cup in 2006.”
Detailing the circumstances, Logan continued: “My kids were a year old and I was flying off to Germany, leaving my babies behind, going to the World Cup. [But] in the middle of the World Cup, he kind of sidelined me, and I came home with my tail between my legs.
“I used to be due to take action many knockout video games and he mentioned, ‘oh, simply don’t come again’ principally. Go house and don’t come again as a result of I used to be attributable to go house for a couple of days. In between the top of the group phases and the knockout phases, there’s at all times a few days off and I used to be going to go house as a result of it was solely Germany and the children have been a yr previous.”
The episode even prompted Logan to ponder a profession change, as she recalled: “I bear in mind being at house – we have been doing up a home on the time, so we have been renting a home in Barnes. It was a beautiful day, it was attractive and the river was wanting lovely and the sky was blue.
“I just remember walking around the garden thinking ‘Oh gosh, I love doing up houses, I’m just going to shift and go into property because that’s what my mum does’. I was maybe 33 at the time and I thought maybe my law degree wasn’t out of date and I could upgrade and go to bar school. I was really contemplating what to do next.”
Nevertheless, Logan conceded the early disappointment finally turned out to be lucky, as she departed ITV that very same yr for the BBC, the place her profession subsequently thrived.
“I was given an opportunity to go to the BBC, where I really felt I had to start again in quite a lot of ways,” she defined. “It was like I was going to a new school, in terms of proving yourself to the teachers and the other kids.
“When I look again now, how way more misogynistic the angles have been to those articles and the way at all times no matter I used to be sporting or seemed like was talked about with regard to my efficiency. I used to be by no means it was by no means the identical for a male colleague, they would not talk about his go well with.
“There was a lot of that to deal with, and I think it definitely fortified me. Once I got that second chance, as I saw it at the time – somewhere that I’d always hoped I might work because of the BBC having the long history with doing the Olympics and various other things that I really wanted to work on – I felt really grateful, and also that I was going to not let this opportunity go.”
