Gabby Logan will be joined by Clare Balding and Alex Scott this week as she fronts the BBC’s coverage of the 2025 Sports Personality of the Year awards
Gabby Logan will host BBC Sports Personality of the Year(Image: PA)
Gabby Logan was told “go home and don’t come back” by a former ITV boss after being taken off World Cup hosting duties. The 52-year-old will be front and centre, hosting the 2025 BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards on Thursday evening.
Logan is as experienced a presenter as they come, having covered the Olympics, the Six Nations and the Euros. She has also been a stalwart fronting the BBC’s SPOTY coverage and will renew her place alongside Clare Balding and Alex Scott this year.
But before her now iconic career with the BBC got underway, she feared it was over when she was axed from covering a World Cup at ITV by a boss who hadn’t warmed to her.
“I think I had a rough ride in my early 30s in my career, and I can’t believe that’s nearly 20 years ago,” said Logan, speaking to the White Wine Question Time podcast. “At the time, I thought it was going to be the end of my career.
“I was leaving ITV and given another chance by the BBC… because even in my early 30s, I felt I’d already had this really long career and I’d done loads of great stuff. I’d been at Sky to start off with and went to ITV and did loads of brilliant things.”
“But I kind of felt I was maybe going to have to shift and do something completely different, because I had a boss that wasn’t really into me and wanted to slightly demote me. He took me off a World Cup in 2006.
Logan worked for ITV at the 2006 World Cup(Image: ITV)
“My kids were a year old and I was flying off to Germany, leaving my babies behind, going to the World Cup. [But] in the middle of the World Cup, he kind of sidelined me, and I came home with my tail between my legs.
“I was due to do so many knockout games and he said [not to come back] basically. Go home and don’t come back because I was due to go home for a few days.
“In between the end of the group stages and the knockout stages, there’s always a couple of days off and I was going to go home because it was only Germany and the kids were a year old.”
Logan then left ITV for another shot at the BBC and she has remained with the broadcaster. Just this year she was handed another historic role when installed as one of the three new presenters of Match of the Day.
Logan is hosting Match of the Day and alternates with two others(Image: BBC)
The 52-year-old hosted her first show this Premier League season and shares duties with Mark Chapman and Kelly Cates. She expressed some relief after her debut went off without a hitch.
Logan said: “The weird thing is, of all the programmes I’ve ever done, that first moment where you say hello to the guests and you link into the first VT , there is kind of this shoulders down moment. You go, ‘Okay, we’re up and running and now it’s just a TV show.’
“That moment from when the titles are rolling, Match of the Day music, the music’s just finished and you’re saying hello to your guests – and no matter how many times you rehearse a link like that, just saying it without tripping up is always a triumph.”
