TV commentators make enormous sums of money by influencing the conversation around football.
With an incredible £30 million in earnings, Gary Lineker is the highest paid.
With pioneers like Kelly Cates and Clare Balding making notable advancements, the field is broad.
Football is now more than simply a 90-minute show; it’s a constant drama interwoven with daily life. The entertainment never takes a backseat, even when things aren’t going well. Debates flare on for days, if not weeks, before and after every major match in the digital era, making sports a topic of conversation all the time.
To put it plainly, football cannot be avoided. Their voices are as powerful as those of the players they criticise, and the faces that break down the action from TV studios are now as renowned as the players on the pitch. Pundits are both adored and despised, and their reputation is frequently determined by the clubs they played for and whether or not their views resonate or provoke outrage. However, this increased power also brings division.
One thing is for sure: there is a lot of money to be made in football punditry, regardless of whether fans follow their every word or roll their eyes at their opinions. However, who is making the most money? The Sun’s study has now identified the top ten British sports commentators in terms of income.
10Clare Balding
TV earnings: £1 milliion
A mainstay of British television for many years, Clare Balding has covered the Olympics for the BBC an incredible seven times and worked on horse racing for Channel 4. Balding joined Today at Wimbledon in 2015 as well, and after Sue Barker retired in 2022, he took over as the show’s main host.
BT Sport took notice of her keen interviewing abilities and gave her control of her own program. She has interviewed some of the biggest personalities in sports, such as Lewis Hamilton, Tom Daley, Ronnie O’Sullivan, and Mike Tyson, on The Clare Balding Show. The 54-year-old, who received an OBE in 2013 for her contributions to journalism and television, is seen by many as having one of the most endearing faces on the box.
9Jeff Stelling
TV earnings: £2 million
Before he retired from his position at the heart of the Gillette Soccer Saturday studio in 2023, Jeff Stelling, a football brainbox, had been the motormouthed eyes and ears of British football fans for the better part of 29 years. He has his own show and frequently hosts talkSPORT’s breakfast show, although he is no longer able to be heard rattling away with artists like Paul Merson.
According to a survey of its members, the Sports Journalists’ Association named Stelling Sports Broadcaster of the Year for four years in a row. Additionally, he received a well-earned MBE in 2024.
8Alex Scott
TV earnings: £2 million
A journalist like Alex Scott, who isn’t scared to discuss the topics that everyone else wants to avoid, is needed in all of life’s battles. She wore a rainbow lace armband to the 2022 World Cup, even though her supervisors urged her not to do so in a nation that is notoriously closed off to other sexual orientations.
Maybe that’s why she was just passed over for coverage of the Olympics in Paris or for the new Match of the Day panel. As Gary Lineker clocks down, she continues to earn a substantial sum from her appearances on Football Focus, and in the view of many others, she is the chosen one.
7Laura Woods
TV earnings: £2.5 million
Laura Woods is another courageous woman in athletics. She wasn’t a previous football player or coach, either, which makes her path to the top of British TV even more admirable than many of the people on this list. Rather, she started out as a runner for Sky Sports and worked her way up.
However, it was her outstanding talkSPORT breakfast show that made her a household name. Although she is currently a much-missed face due to maternity leave, Woods is the primary host for TNT Sports’ Champions League coverage and the face of ITV’s football coverage.
6David Jones
TV earnings: £3 million
It is impossible to overstate David Jones’s contribution. Although he might not be as well-known or well-liked as the people he gives the talking points to (like Roy Keane), he frequently acts as the glue that holds the rest of the panel together. He frequently serves as the fuel that keeps Sky Sports’ motor running.
Jones and Georgie Thompson were both Sky Sports News originals when the station debuted in 1998. In addition to presenting, he serves as the non-executive director of Sunderland AFC, which helps him maintain his status as an unsung hero.
5Mark Pougatch
TV earnings: £3.5 million
Mark Pougatch, who oversees ITV’s premier coverage of rugby and football, is calm and confident. He succeeded Adrian Chiles as ITV’s main football presenter six years ago, covering England international matches and Champions League matches.
Before that, he spent 22 years working for BBC Radio 5 Live, where he became a well-known and recognised voice in sports broadcasting. He also joined BT Sport in the summer of 2016 to host BT Sport Score, which was a direct competitor of Gillette Soccer Saturday on Sky Sports. However, for some, his coverage of FA Cup draws will be his most well-known role, as it appears to have become his speciality.
4Gabby Logan
TV earnings: £4 million
A familiar face on our televisions and an accomplished professional in the field, Gabby Logan is a household name in sports broadcasting. She has become the network’s go-to broadcaster for sports since joining BBC Sport in 2007 and has replaced Gary Lineker on Match of the Day.
She has fronted coverage of the World Athletics Championships, the Olympics, the London Marathon, and the Commonwealth Games over the years. She was a member of the BBC’s Euro 2024 presenting team most recently, thus she was a perfect fit for her next post sharing MOTD hosting responsibilities.
3Mark Chapman
TV earnings: £4 million
There may be a lot of hemming and ahhing about who should be the next Lineker’s Match of the Day, but that is only because Britain has an abundance of talented pundits. But perhaps no one is more qualified than Mark Chapman, the victorious candidate.
He is a darling among the fans on Match of the Day 2 every Sunday because of his sharp wit and extensive football knowledge. Along with The Monday Night Club, Chapman is the host of BBC 5 Live’s Sports Report, which is the oldest sports radio program in the world and one of Britain’s oldest radio broadcasts. His new position, which begins next season, will cause his income to soar, though.
2Kelly Cates
TV earnings: £8 million
After just announcing her move from Sky to the BBC to join Match of the Day, Kelly Cates is riding high on the crest of a major career wave. The adored football host, who was one of the first faces of Sky Sports News when it debuted in the late 1990s, is the daughter of Liverpool icon Kenny Dalglish.
Like Chapman, Cates has presented shows on BBC 5 Live. She seems right at home with the biggest stars in the beautiful game, like Roy Keane, Jamie Carragher, and Gary Neville, and her ability to make any conversation interesting has become almost effortless.
1Gary Lineker
TV earnings: £30 million
Gary Lineker isn’t only on the TV; he might as well be the TV, having made £22 million more than his closest competitor. The 62-year-old Lineker made his television debut as a team captain on the comedic quiz program They Think It’s All Over. The former England player fronts Match of the Day and took over as anchorman for all football coverage in 1999, replacing Des Lynam.
We could spend an entire day enumerating all of his achievements since he hung up his boots and rose to become the best media figure in the nation. To mention a few, the Walkers’ poster boy is the longest-running Match of the Day presenter in history, owns Goalhanger Podcasts, his own podcast empire, and was awarded the Manuel Vazquez Montalbano International Journalism Award for Sport. The only way to stay away from the former Leicester City forward until he quits this summer is to unplug your television.
