| My guest on The Game Changers this week is trailblazing sports presenter Jacqui Oatley. Jacqui talks about her lifelong obsession with football, how she changed careers at 27 to re-train as a journalist and how lonely and isolated she felt after the hideous media coverage of her being the first female commentator on BBC’s Match of The Day. Jacqui went on to present the show in 2015, along with the BBC radio’s flagship sports news show Sportsweek. She has also hosted both men’s and women’s Euros and World Cups, now presents football and darts for ITV and recently became the first female host of Sky Sports Sunday Supplement show. It’s no wonder that in 2016 Jacqui was awarded an MBE for her services to broadcasting and diversity, having also been named as the 8th most influential woman in sport by the Independent. You can hear Jacqui’s entertaining and inspiring interview here. I’m so grateful to Barclays for supporting this series of The Game Changers which features eight ‘fearless women in football’, and reinforces Barclays’ huge support for the beautiful game. Other trailblazing guests in this series include: Kelly Smith MBE – one of the greatest-ever female players and England Women’s record goal scorer Dame Sue Campbell – Former Chair of UK Sport and now Director of Women’s Football at The FA Jo Tongue – Football agent, Director of Women in Football and a tireless campaigner for equality in sport and the media Maggie Murphy – General Manager at Lewes FC Women, the first football club in the world to pay its male and female players equally Casey Stoney MBE – Former England captain with over 100 caps, now Manager of Manchester Utd Women Kelly Simmons MBE – Director of the Women’s Professional Game at The FA Hope Powell CBE – Trailblazing former England Women’s Football manager and the first woman to be awarded a UEFA Pro LicenseYou can listen to the trailer for series 3 here. |
| Find out more about the trailblazing guests from all three series here |
