Gary Lineker's replacements on Match of the Day are unveiled
by MARK DUELL · Mail OnlineMatch of the Day viewers gave a mixed reaction to Gabby Logan, Kelly Cates and Mark Chapman being announced today as the new hosts after Gary Lineker leaves.
The confirmation follows speculation about the presenting line-up of the BBC's flagship football show following news last year that Lineker would step back.
The former England striker has presented the show since 1999 but will depart at the end of the season.
One viewer tweeted: 'I'm really glad Match of the Day are going with 3 rotating hosts, individually I don't think anyone could fill Gary's shoes but having multiple will keep it feeling fresh.'
Another said: 'Mark Chapman, Gabby Logan and Kelly Cates will be the new hosts of Match of The Day from the start of next season. I think all three are great choices to be presenters on the programme.'
But a third wrote: 'Can't stand Gabby so that's another football show going down the pan.' And a fourth posted: 'Definitely not watching it now.'
After the announcement, Logan said: 'It's always a real moment (sitting in the chair) because it has such history. It's still so relevant to so many people now and talked about in a landscape where TV's changed so much.
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'There's an enormous responsibility to make sure we continue to evolve while at the same time respecting the traditions of Match of the Day. People want to see the goals, they want to see the incidents, they want to see the moments everyone's talking about, so while we can tinker at the edges, the core is the football.'
Cates, who will also continue her role with Sky Sports, said: 'Once I sit in that chair and the theme music starts, I just know that's going to be a really incredible moment. I've worked with a lot of the pundits before and they're all fantastic, so I'm just looking forward to getting started.
'I've known Gabby and Mark really well for years so to bring it all together, embracing the digital side of things, it feels like a really comprehensive football package for fans and that's what makes it so exciting too.'
She has been a presenter with Sky Sports since rejoining them in 2016, fronting their coverage of the Premier League.
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The 49-year-old daughter of former Scotland and Liverpool footballer Sir Kenny Dalglish also hosts BBC Radio 5 Live's Tuesday night sports coverage.
Former gymnast Logan, 51, became one of the first female sports anchors to break into terrestrial television and has covered several Olympic Games, the World Cup and the Commonwealth Games during her tenure at the BBC.
She has presented Match Of The Day in Lineker's absence on many occasions, while she also fronted the BBC's coverage as the Lionesses stormed to glory in the Women's Euros in 2023.
Meanwhile, Chapman, 51, has been broadcasting for more than 25 years and presents BBC's Match Of The Day 2 covering the action and reaction from the Premier League.
On sharing the role with Cates and Logan, Chapman said: 'This isn't about the three of us, it's about the three of us plus our pundits, plus our editors, plus our analysts and stats people and production people, radio and online. Genuinely this is about all of us as a department working together.'
Logan and Chapman also host a Global Player podcast together, titled The Sports Agents.
Who are the three sports TV stalwarts taking over Match of the Day?
New Match Of The Day hosts Mark Chapman, Kelly Cates and Gabby Logan have years of experience in sports broadcasting and few controversial moments between them.
Former England and Leicester City striker Gary Lineker will leave the role, which he has held since 1999, at the end of the current season.
Here is a look at those taking over:
- Kelly Cates
Cates has been a mainstay on Sky Sports, where she fronts its football coverage, having rejoined the channel in 2016.
The Glasgow-born presenter, whose father, Sir Kenny Dalglish, played for and managed Liverpool, was part of the BBC's Olympic coverage, and is also a BBC Radio 5 Live reporter.
She previously fronted highlights programme Football On 5, which was retitled Football League Tonight, and has been hosting the Premier League's weekly The Kelly And Wrighty Show with footballer Ian Wright and the Sky Bet Not Just Football podcast with Christine Lampard and Hayley McQueen.
Cates has experience in a variety of other broadcasting roles, including presenting for Setanta Sports and ESPN, reporting for ITV at the 2010 World Cup and being part of Channel 4's 2012 Paralympics coverage.
She has previously spoken about sexism in football, after then-Sky Sports presenters Andy Gray and Richard Keys claimed female officials 'don't know the offside rule'.
She posted on X: 'Just read about something called 'the offside rule'. Too much for my tiny brain. Must be damaged from nail polish fumes.'
She was also at the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, when she was 13, and spoke in a 2017 documentary, Kenny, about her father having difficulties addressing his grief over the tragedy, in which 97 people died.
- Mark Chapman
'Chappers' has been the permanent presenter of Match Of The Day 2, which shows highlights of Premier League action on Sunday evenings, since 2013.
He is also a key part of the BBC's coverage of football on radio, presenting Sports Report on 5 Live and the Monday Night Club on the same station, as well as their wider sports broadcasting including the Paris Olympics this year.
Chapman backed Lineker during his impartiality row with the BBC after the former footballer was taken off air for a tweet comparing the language used to launch a new government asylum seeker policy to that of 1930s Germany.
He was among the staff who walked out of sports shows over the incident in 2023, before the broadcaster apologised and reinstated Lineker as host of MOTD, and Chapman returned to his job.
In 2024, Chapman and Logan began hosting Global Player's The News Agents spin-off podcast, titled The Sports Agents, which features sports coverage and interviews.
- Gabby Logan
Logan joined Sky Sports as a presenter after university, before working at ITV and then leaving to present Inside Sport at the BBC after being sidelined by ITV Sport bosses during the World Cup.
The former gymnast has previously presented MOTD in Lineker's absence on many occasions, while she also fronted the BBC's coverage as the Lionesses stormed to glory in the Women's Euros in 2023.
The multiple winner of Sports Presenter of the Year has also been involved in the BBC's coverage of Six Nations rugby, and the last four summer Olympic Games, as well as co-presenting BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
Logan has also been outspoken, telling the Radio Times in 2013 that she was once rebuked by a BBC boss for looking 'too glamorous' after he spotted her in high-heeled boots.
Outside the BBC, where the salaries list for the 2022/23 financial year showed she earned £240,000-£244,999, she has also featured on Prime Video's Every Game Every Goal as well as her podcast with Chapman.
Logan, who is married to ex-Scotland rugby player Kenny Logan, has previously told BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs that, when she first started out as a broadcaster, she spent time proving 'people wrong' who looked down on her for being a woman presenting sport.
Her younger brother Daniel died while playing football with their father, former Welsh footballer Terry Yorath, in their garden.
It was later found that Daniel had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a condition which affects the heart's ability to pump blood around the body.
At the age of 12, Logan had been watching her father play for Bradford City on the day in May 1985 when 56 people were killed in a fire at the Valley Parade stadium. Her mother had left early.
She told the Telegraph: 'Ever since then, whenever there's a disaster you think about the decisions that people make within those moments.'