Martin Tyler

Play-By-Play Commentator, 2010 FIFA World Cup

Martin Tyler

Martin Tyler, one of the most accomplished and respected television play-by-play commentators in the United Kingdom for over 35 years, is the lead play-by-play commentator for ESPN’s coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa (June 11–July 11, 2010) in the United States.  He has called matches in every FIFA World Cup since 1978, and will make his ESPN debut Friday, June 11, the event’s opening match between Mexico and host nation South Africa.

Voted the “FA Premier League Commentator of the Decade” in 2003 by fans and a panel of football experts, Tyler has been with the London-based Sky Sports network since its launch in 1991.  His arrival at Sky Sports coincided with the formation of Premiership football and Sky’s acquisition of the league’s broadcast rights.  Tyler has led Sky’s critically-acclaimed soccer commentary team, calling some of the Premier League’s best matches.

Tyler graduated from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, and started in journalism, working on Marshall Cavendish’s Book of Football in 1971. 

In 1973 Tyler moved into television, working behind the camera on LWT’s “The Big Match,” ITV’s first popular soccer program in the UK.  He started commentating for ITV’s Southern TV region and later served Yorkshire TV, Granada and the ITV network.  Tyler called his first television match on ITV on Dec. 28, 1974, at The Dell, a second division clash between home team Southampton FC vs. Sheffield Wednesday. 

Tyler’s profile at the different ITV channels increased as he earned professional acclaim for his play-by-play role.  He was named to the network’s 1978 FIFA World Cup broadcast team and four years later, he led ITV’s coverage of the World Cup, calling all of the England team’s World Cup matches and the final – a 3-1 Italy victory over Germany in Madrid.

Throughout the 1980s, Tyler continued to establish himself as a prominent television voice in soccer, working the 1984 and 1988 European Championships and the 1986 FIFA World Cup.  In 1990, he joined the British Satellite Broadcasting’s (BSB) sports channel, which became Sky Sports in 1991.  Following Sky’s acquisition of the Premier League rights, Tyler, alongside analyst Andy Gray, a former Scotland National Team and English First Division player, have spearheaded what has become the generation’s standard for live soccer television commentary.

Tyler and Gray are also the voice-over commentators for the popular EA Sports FIFA video game series on PS3 and Xbox 360.

Tyler has also vast experience of broadcasting outside the USA covering the last five World Cups and European Championships and many of the major European Club Finals for SBS Australia.

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