KELLY CATES WAS coy on her new job when she spoke to The 42 last week.
The broadcaster had been heavily linked with presenting BBC’s Match of the Day, but the news had yet to be officially announced.
“Everybody else seems to know a lot more about it than I do!” said Cates at the 2025 Lidl Ladies National Football Leagues launch on Tuesday.
“Everybody keeps telling me, and I go, ‘Okay, that would be great.’ All opportunities to go and take on something are fantastic, and anything that makes you nervous and scared is good. There’s that phrase: do something that scares you every day, and you’ll keep growing. That’s the best thing you can keep doing.
“I’m 50 this year, and not many brand new opportunities come up when you’re 50, so when they do come knocking and you do feel that there’s a chance for change in your life, it’s really important to embrace it and not get stuck in your ways and routine.”
Twenty four hours later, Cates was announced as one of three primary hosts for Match of the Day alongside Mark Chapman and Gabby Logan. They will fill the void left by Gary Lineker, who is stepping down at the end of the season.
A brand new opportunity, and a chance for Cates to do something that scares her every day.
*****
It all started back in 1998 at Sky Sports News. Cates and Mike Wedderburn were the very first presenters on the brand-new programme that August.
Cates, the daughter of former Liverpool player and manager Kenny Dalglish, was two years into a Maths degree at Glasgow University when a different path presented itself. The nascent Sky Sports News were offering opportunities to new graduates and young people with varying backgrounds, and Cates decided to put herself forward.
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“They came in and screen tested and we broadcast to the building,” she recalls to The 42. “You couldn’t buy the satellite dish that broadcast the channel at the time that we went on air, but it didn’t make it any less nerveracking. I was terrified.
“Actually, it was worse that my colleagues could watch it rather than (the public). Then they released the dishes, there was a big push for them by the Christmas. Every time I went past a house that had the little mini Sky dish on, I used to think, ‘They can watch our channel, this is amazing!’”
Cates interviewing her father, Kenny Dalglish, in 2018. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
Those early days were formative. Endless hours of broadcasting under the belt, most of those going unseen outside the building.
“To have that opportunity to to do live television where a load of us were brand new, making all the mistakes you could make,” Cates smiles, “it was chaos, but you learn to deal with all of that. And you learn to deal with it in a really safe, secure environment.”
Many highs and lows have followed through a near 27-year career.
Liverpool’s parade after the 2005 Champions League win is a standout memory for Cates. It was a baptism of fire: eight or nine hours of live television; no autocue; technical issues; guests coming and going. Complete and utter madness, and she loved it.
“I just thought, ‘I can do this,’” Cates recalls. “I felt a real sense of achievement, and I felt like I was a proper presenter then. I was a broadcaster, and I could do it.”
Other highlights include the 2012 Paralympics in London and covering the America’s Cup sailing competition: both experiences away from the safety blanket of football, which she had grown up immersed in.
“All those moments of working in different areas are the ones that I really love, because they’re the ones that terrify me,” she explains. “I don’t know what I’m going into, I don’t know what to expect, and that’s great because you don’t ever want to be in a position where you turn up to work and go, ‘Yeah, it’s fine. It will be okay. Same old, same old.’
“(Football) felt familiar. Definitely, there have been moments where I’ve been really nervous going on air, especially when it’s a big game or big event or something’s really riding on it, you want to get it absolutely right. But there is always that element of familiarity: if it all goes to the wall, worst case scenario, I can talk about this.”
There have been no shortage of challenges and learnings, and throughout, Cates has always tried to maintain a wide range of sports and mediums, and keep adding strings to her bow. Every day is a school day.
In 2025, she is more in the spotlight than ever before, thanks to social media. Interactions with pundits like Roy Keane, or awkward interviews, can go viral in a matter of minutes. Online abuse and trolling is prevalent, especially for females in a male-dominated world.
The landscape has changed astronomically through the years, but Cates continues to change the game and blaze a trail for women in sports media.
“I was completely oblivious when I first started that I wasn’t supposed to be there,” she says.
Cates in full flow on a Sky Sports broadcast. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
“I started off with a load of 20-year-olds, they were all my peers, so there wasn’t that same entrenched sexism that I think there was in the wider industry. We were just a load of kids that had just graduated, who were really happily making telly and just happy to be there. We were all on the same level, in the same boat.
“Also because I’d grown up in football, it wasn’t until years later, I was like, ‘Was I not supposed to be there?’ the fact that this was a thing. That kind of obliviousness was really, really helpful to me.
“Then when I went out and people were a bit strange about me being a woman, genuinely, hand on heart, a lot of the times I look back now and I think, ‘I wonder if that was because I’m a woman.’ Sometimes I thought, ‘Maybe it’s because I’m new, or young, or because whatever,’ it never really occurred to me until later on that it was because I was a woman.”
“Now, I go and stand pitchside and there’s women all the way up the touchline — that was never the case, I would often be the only one,” she concludes. “Or you go into the press room and there’s loads of women there.
“At the time, I always sought out other women who were working with me. I saw them, so it never felt like a lonely place to be. I never felt like the only one because you kind go gravitate naturally towards the women you’re working with.”
For Cates, the journey now continues alongside Gabby Logan, as the first female co-presenters on Match of the Day. Lights, camera, action.
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'Do something that scares you every day' - Kelly Cates' journey to Match of the Day presenter
KELLY CATES WAS coy on her new job when she spoke to The 42 last week.
The broadcaster had been heavily linked with presenting BBC’s Match of the Day, but the news had yet to be officially announced.
“Everybody else seems to know a lot more about it than I do!” said Cates at the 2025 Lidl Ladies National Football Leagues launch on Tuesday.
“Everybody keeps telling me, and I go, ‘Okay, that would be great.’ All opportunities to go and take on something are fantastic, and anything that makes you nervous and scared is good. There’s that phrase: do something that scares you every day, and you’ll keep growing. That’s the best thing you can keep doing.
“I’m 50 this year, and not many brand new opportunities come up when you’re 50, so when they do come knocking and you do feel that there’s a chance for change in your life, it’s really important to embrace it and not get stuck in your ways and routine.”
Twenty four hours later, Cates was announced as one of three primary hosts for Match of the Day alongside Mark Chapman and Gabby Logan. They will fill the void left by Gary Lineker, who is stepping down at the end of the season.
A brand new opportunity, and a chance for Cates to do something that scares her every day.
*****
It all started back in 1998 at Sky Sports News. Cates and Mike Wedderburn were the very first presenters on the brand-new programme that August.
Cates, the daughter of former Liverpool player and manager Kenny Dalglish, was two years into a Maths degree at Glasgow University when a different path presented itself. The nascent Sky Sports News were offering opportunities to new graduates and young people with varying backgrounds, and Cates decided to put herself forward.
“They came in and screen tested and we broadcast to the building,” she recalls to The 42. “You couldn’t buy the satellite dish that broadcast the channel at the time that we went on air, but it didn’t make it any less nerveracking. I was terrified.
“Actually, it was worse that my colleagues could watch it rather than (the public). Then they released the dishes, there was a big push for them by the Christmas. Every time I went past a house that had the little mini Sky dish on, I used to think, ‘They can watch our channel, this is amazing!’”
Those early days were formative. Endless hours of broadcasting under the belt, most of those going unseen outside the building.
“To have that opportunity to to do live television where a load of us were brand new, making all the mistakes you could make,” Cates smiles, “it was chaos, but you learn to deal with all of that. And you learn to deal with it in a really safe, secure environment.”
Many highs and lows have followed through a near 27-year career.
Liverpool’s parade after the 2005 Champions League win is a standout memory for Cates. It was a baptism of fire: eight or nine hours of live television; no autocue; technical issues; guests coming and going. Complete and utter madness, and she loved it.
“I just thought, ‘I can do this,’” Cates recalls. “I felt a real sense of achievement, and I felt like I was a proper presenter then. I was a broadcaster, and I could do it.”
Other highlights include the 2012 Paralympics in London and covering the America’s Cup sailing competition: both experiences away from the safety blanket of football, which she had grown up immersed in.
“All those moments of working in different areas are the ones that I really love, because they’re the ones that terrify me,” she explains. “I don’t know what I’m going into, I don’t know what to expect, and that’s great because you don’t ever want to be in a position where you turn up to work and go, ‘Yeah, it’s fine. It will be okay. Same old, same old.’
“(Football) felt familiar. Definitely, there have been moments where I’ve been really nervous going on air, especially when it’s a big game or big event or something’s really riding on it, you want to get it absolutely right. But there is always that element of familiarity: if it all goes to the wall, worst case scenario, I can talk about this.”
There have been no shortage of challenges and learnings, and throughout, Cates has always tried to maintain a wide range of sports and mediums, and keep adding strings to her bow. Every day is a school day.
In 2025, she is more in the spotlight than ever before, thanks to social media. Interactions with pundits like Roy Keane, or awkward interviews, can go viral in a matter of minutes. Online abuse and trolling is prevalent, especially for females in a male-dominated world.
The landscape has changed astronomically through the years, but Cates continues to change the game and blaze a trail for women in sports media.
“I was completely oblivious when I first started that I wasn’t supposed to be there,” she says.
“I started off with a load of 20-year-olds, they were all my peers, so there wasn’t that same entrenched sexism that I think there was in the wider industry. We were just a load of kids that had just graduated, who were really happily making telly and just happy to be there. We were all on the same level, in the same boat.
“Also because I’d grown up in football, it wasn’t until years later, I was like, ‘Was I not supposed to be there?’ the fact that this was a thing. That kind of obliviousness was really, really helpful to me.
“Then when I went out and people were a bit strange about me being a woman, genuinely, hand on heart, a lot of the times I look back now and I think, ‘I wonder if that was because I’m a woman.’ Sometimes I thought, ‘Maybe it’s because I’m new, or young, or because whatever,’ it never really occurred to me until later on that it was because I was a woman.”
“Now, I go and stand pitchside and there’s women all the way up the touchline — that was never the case, I would often be the only one,” she concludes. “Or you go into the press room and there’s loads of women there.
“At the time, I always sought out other women who were working with me. I saw them, so it never felt like a lonely place to be. I never felt like the only one because you kind go gravitate naturally towards the women you’re working with.”
For Cates, the journey now continues alongside Gabby Logan, as the first female co-presenters on Match of the Day. Lights, camera, action.
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Interview Kelly Cates Match of the Day Soccer