Rhodri Ogwen Williams (born 10 May 1968) is a Welsh

sports journalist Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism started in the early 1800s when it was targeted to the social elite and transitioned into an integral part of the n ...

from Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. He is currently employed by Qatar's Al-Kass Sports Channel and anchors the network's English-speaking studio.

TV career

Williams was a main presenter for Sky Sports News and was one of Sky Sports' main rugby presenters - hosting the

Heineken Cup The European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Heineken Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) is an annual rugby union tournament organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the top-tier competition for clubs who compete in a pre ...

and Southern Hemisphere rugby including the Tri Nations, the NPC in New Zealand and the Currie Cup in South Africa. He was sacked by Sky Sports in 2006 after tabloid revelations regarding his personal life. He was the first presenter on

L!VE TV L!VE TV was a British television station that was operated by Mirror Group Newspapers on cable television from 12 June 1995 until 5 November 1999. It was later revived for Sky from 2003. In 2006, L!VE TV's name was changed to Babeworld to ...

( Britain's first 24-hour

cable channel Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broadc ...

). In 1997 Rhodri was the quizmaster on L!VE TV's football quiz ''A Game of Two Scarves'' featuring fans and glamour models. He also hosted the station's talent show, '' Spanish Archer''. Williams was part of the launch of Channel 5 in the UK as one of the presenters on the channel's afternoon entertainment show ''5's Company'' with Nick Knowles and John Barrowman. He has presented numerous programmes for Welsh language channel

S4C S4C (, ''Sianel Pedwar Cymru'', meaning ''Channel Four Wales'') is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speaking ...

, and also presented '' Animal Hospital'' with Rolf Harris. In 2001, Williams appeared on Lily Savage's Blankety Blank. He was the main rugby anchor for Setanta Sports and hosted various shows on

Setanta Sports News Setanta Sports News was a television channel from Virgin Media Television and Setanta Sports. The channel launched on 29 November 2007.

. Williams presented ITV Wales' coverage of the

2007 Rugby World Cup The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by France from 7 September to 2 ...

. In 2008, Williams was contracted by

Al Jazeera Sports beIN Sports MENA ( ar, بي إن سبورتس العربية) is a subsidiary of beIN Sports. It is based in Doha, Qatar, serving the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. They are owned by beIN Media Group, a former subsidiary of Al Jaze ...

with whom he covered the

2008 Beijing Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

and the

2011 AFC Asian Cup The 2011 AFC Asian Cup was the 15th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The finals were held in Qatar from 7 to 29 January 2011. It was the fifte ...

. He also anchored 2012 Al Kass International Cup. Later that year, he was hired full-time by Al Kass Sports Channel to host a segment known as ''QSL Review'' in an incentive to provide coverage of the

Qatar Stars League The Qatar Stars League ( ar, دوري نجوم قطر), or the QSL, also called QNB Stars League for sponsorship reasons, is the top level football league in Qatar football league system. Contested by 12 teams, it operates on a system of promotio ...

to non-Arabic speakers.

Radio

Williams has been a presenter on national radio sports station talkSPORT, presenting the ''Kick-off'' programme on Thursday from 19:00 to 22:00 and ''The Sunday Session.'' He has also presented radio shows for BBC Radio Wales and Radio Cymru.

Business interests

Away from the media, Williams owns three businesses in Cardiff.

Personal life

Williams is the son of Welsh TV (

) weather presenter Jenny Ogwen. He was educated at Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf and

South Glamorgan Institute of Higher Education South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...

References

External links

Rhodri Williams official site
Imagine Golf 1968 births Living people British game show hosts Welsh-language television presenters Welsh radio presenters Welsh television presenters British sports journalists Alumni of Cardiff University People from Barry, Vale of Glamorgan {{UK-journalist-stub