'Women sports commentators are not as good as men – but I wouldn't ban them'

Elton Welsby has claimed ‘women commentators are not as good as men’, but the former television presenter wouldn’t ban them from sports broadcasts.

Welsby was best known as a presenter and featured on several popular sports programmes during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, including Match Night, Match Time and On the Ball.

He also made up part of the ITV team that covered both the Euros and World Cups between 1982 and 1992, as well as occasionally covering the Olympic Games, when they were broadcast on the channel.

Welsby certainly knows a thing or two about sports broadcasting, but he believes the industry has taken a turn for the worse.

Slamming the role of female commentators on male events, Welsby told The Telegraph: “I was brought up on Hugh Johns and Brian Moore. They had just the perfect voices for live television commentary.

“The voice would rise with the crescendo of the crowd when the goal is scored. The crowd erupts and they are with them. I don’t think the lady commentators can do that, they don’t have the same voice. But good luck to them.”

He continued: “Maybe half the audience are ladies and they prefer that, it’s just personal – nothing more. If I was head of Sky Sports or BBC Sport or ITV Sport I wouldn’t say ‘ban lady commentators’, they deserve their chance.

“But it is like watching women’s football or rugby – I choose not to watch it but I don’t condemn them for doing it. It is subjective. That is not getting me in trouble at all.”

Welsby hasn’t been afraid to speak out against the new landscape of sports media, having previously blasted one of his former employers.

During an interview with The Daily Express in 2015, Welsby claimed Soccer Sunday – a programme he anchored for Granada – was “a poor show with poor content and poor journalistic standards.”

But Welsby did admit he wishes he was given a longer shot at the top prior to Sky Sports taking a stranglehold on the industry in 1992.

On his time as a presenter, Welsby added: “In terms of the live football, I think I was cut off in my prime.

“After Euro 92 where I had lived with Big Jack [Charlton] and we were presenting live with no London back-up.

“It was all presented from the ground with me and Big Jack. I felt visually and mentally I was at my prime. I still had eight more years at Granada.

“Who knows? Had ITV still had the exclusive contract, I’m not saying I would be doing it to this day. But there comes a time when ‘are you eye-candy?’ No you’re not. Let’s get someone who is.”