Mark Charles Albert Pougatch (born 27 January 1968) is an English radio and television broadcaster, a journalist and author who is currently the Chief Sport Presenter for

ITV Sport ITV Sport is a sport producer for ITV. It was formed following the merger between Granada Sport and Central Sport.Stan Sport Stan (stylized as Stan.) is an Australian over-the-top streaming service. It was launched on 26 January 2015. Stan originally was founded as StreamCo Media, a 50/50 joint venture between Nine Entertainment Co. and Fairfax Media. In August 2014, ...

's UEFA competition coverage. Pougatch was the presenter of ''

BT Sport Score ''BT Sport Score'' is a weekly television programme broadcast on BT Sport during the football season. The programme updates viewers on the progress of football games in the United Kingdom on Saturday afternoons between 2:45pm and 5pm. ''BT Spor ...

''.

Early life

Born in

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Paddi ...

, west London, Pougatch attended

Malvern College Malvern College is an Independent school (United Kingdom), independent coeducational day and boarding school in Malvern, Worcestershire, Malvern, Worcestershire, England. It is a public school (United Kingdom), public school in the British sen ...

, where he was captain of the First XI cricket team and graduated with a degree in politics at the

University of Durham Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charte ...

where he was a member of

Hatfield College , motto_English = Either the first or with the first , scarf = , named_for = Thomas Hatfield , established = , senior_tutor = , master = Ann MacLarnon (2017–) , undergraduates = 1010 (2017/18) , postgradu ...

. He then undertook a postgraduate diploma in Broadcast Journalism at the

London College of Communication The London College of Communication is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. It specialises in media-related subjects including advertising, animation, film, graphic design, photography and sound arts. It has approximately ...

Broadcasting career

Pougatch initially worked for six months at the former BBC radio station for London,

BBC GLR BBC Radio London is the BBC's local radio station serving Greater London and its surrounding areas. The station broadcasts across the area and beyond, on the 94.9 FM frequency, DAB, Virgin Media channel 937, Sky channel 0152 (in the London ...

. He then became a regular football reporter in 1992 with

BBC Essex BBC Essex is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Essex. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios on New London Road in Chelmsford. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of 160,000 ...

. In 1994, he joined

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcast ...

, selected to be the main presenter of '' 5 live Sport'' on Sundays. In August 2000, he switched to the flagship Saturday edition of the show and continued to present this until August 2016 when he was replaced by Mark Chapman. Pougatch continues to present some other editions of ''5 Live Sport'', most notably on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings throughout the football season. He also presents The Weekend Review on Premier League TV on Monday throughout the Football season. Pougatch has presented coverage of the IPL cricket and the African Cup of Nations for

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

. In January 2015, Pougatch replaced

Adrian Chiles Adrian Chiles (born 21 March 1967) is a British writer and television and radio presenter. He has co-presented both ''The One Show'' (2007–2010) and '' Daybreak'' (2010–2011) with Christine Lampard. He was also the chief presenter for foo ...

as the main football presenter on

, fronting the channel's coverage of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

, England Internationals and later

Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe o ...

. In February and March 2016, Pougatch co-presented

's coverage of the Six Nations Rugby Championship, and continued in this role in 2017, 2018 and 2019, subsequently co-hosting ITV's coverage of the

2019 Rugby World Cup The 2019 Rugby World Cup was the ninth edition of the Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's rugby union teams. It was hosted in Japan from 20 September to 2 November in 12 venues all across the country. The opening match ...

alongside (amongst others)

Craig Doyle Craig Doyle (born 17 December 1970, Dublin) is an Irish television and radio presenter. To British viewers he is recognisable as working for the BBC and ITV and more recently BT Sport. Irish viewers also know him as the host of RTÉ One chat ...

. In March 2012, he won the

Sports Journalists' Association The Sports Journalists' Association (SJA) is an association for British sports journalists. It represents the British sports media on the British Olympic Association's press advisory committee and acts as a consultant to organizers of major events ...

award for Sports Broadcaster of the Year. Since 13 August 2016, Pougatch has presented the Saturday afternoon show ''

'' on

BT Sport BT Sport is a group of broadcasting of sports events, pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports#Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe properties, Warner Bros. Dis ...

. Pougatch join Australia's

Stan Sport Stan (stylized as Stan.) is an Australian over-the-top streaming service. It was launched on 26 January 2015. Stan originally was founded as StreamCo Media, a 50/50 joint venture between Nine Entertainment Co. and Fairfax Media. In August 2014, ...

's coverage of

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

Champions League,

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

, Conference League and Super Cup, reporting live from the stadium.

Other activities

Pougatch joined the team of '' Football Superstars'', a game which was due to be released in 2009 as an innovative

MMORPG A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...

game integrating gameplay with footballers' lifestyles. He is the author of ''Three Lions Versus the World: England's World Cup Stories from the Men Who Were There''. He is also a speaker, after dinner and at daytime events.

Personal life

Pougatch is married to Lady Victoria Scott, the younger daughter of the 5th

Earl of Eldon Earl of Eldon, in the County Palatine of Durham, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1821 for the lawyer and politician John Scott, 1st Baron Eldon, Lord Chancellor from 1801 to 1806 and again from 1807 to 1827. H ...

. They live in

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

with their three children. His grandfather was among the

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews after ...

who escaped

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

amid the violence that followed the

first Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution of 1905,. also known as the First Russian Revolution,. occurred on 22 January 1905, and was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. The mass unrest was directed again ...

."BBC Radio 5 Live presenter Mark Pougatch is a sucker for a grumpy TV character and has been known to read Red."
By John Dugdale. ''The Guardian''. 30 November 2009.

References

External links

*
The Official Football Superstars WebsiteMark Pougatch
on Twitter
''5 Live Sport''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pougatch, Mark 1968 births BBC newsreaders and journalists BBC Radio 5 Live presenters BT Sport presenters and reporters English association football commentators English people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Living people People from Paddington People educated at Malvern College Tennis commentators Golf writers and broadcasters Alumni of Hatfield College, Durham